The Power of Quilting took place in Frankfurt in July 2023 as part of the project week at the Helmholz School and at the invitation of the Heussenstamm Foundation. Together with twelve 9th and 10th grade students and with the fantastic support of art teacher Ms. Baumung, they familiarized themselves with the rarely used possibilities offered by textile handicraft methods from all over the world. In particular, they focused on the creative and artistic qualities of patchwork and quilting.
It is important to me to pass on this underrepresented knowledge. By learning traditional craft methods, we can immerse ourselves in the countless experiences of many hands working with fibers and textiles. For me, they are like a treasure chest of collective knowledge that goes back to our beginnings. Women are the protagonists of this barely told story.
I began by introducing the amazing quilts of Gee's Bend, the women who make them, and the incredible Rosie Lee Tompkins with her improv quilts. How are they made, what makes them special, and what can I do with a needle and thread and the used fabrics that were piling up on the table? We did without sewing machines and sewed exclusively by hand. It is an intimate, slow and creative process.
First, the students sewed a leather sewing ring and learned how to make the quilter's knot. Then they cut four small rectangles, which were sewn together in a precise sequence. The result was a sculptural form, a juggling ball, which also served as a pincushion for the girls and boys. This took up the first day.
By Thursday, twelve individual patchwork blocks had been sewn, which were presented on a self-made cord. The relaxed concentration in the room was always noticeable, the results astonishing to the trained eye. Some blocks were embellished with figurative appliqué, others used abstract reverse appliqué and embroidery. Others integrated transparent fabrics such as lace, but also velvet, polyester and existing fabric patterns. One student overdyed the fabrics and made them her own. Another covered her block with countless monochrome stitches and focused on the quilting itself.
The materiality of the fabrics makes textile art a special art form at the interface of painting, sculpture and craftsmanship. As always in the creation of images, color is important, as is composition.
The textile also has a cultural-historical, economic and social context. I would like to write more about it.
The production of textiles is one of the first inventions of mankind.
But why is it customary to ridicule manual textile work and hardly reward the work of the people in the cotton plantations, the weaving mills and at the sewing machine? Why has textile art only played a role in the Western, contemporary understanding of art for a few years now?
Fabrics do not last forever and have therefore rarely been preserved. The first cords were used to knot nets for fishing, transport things and tie arrows together. It was a groundbreaking discovery. The oldest surviving item of clothing is a fringed skirt. It did not keep warm, nor did it cover the shame. It is a significant piece and speaks to the fact that textiles are also symbolic in nature. At school, we learn nothing about textile findings and their significance.
Other reasons why we know little about it are of an economic and political nature. These reasons involve violence and the exploitation of nature and people. Textiles are the things we live with and within. It is a huge market. Wars were fought to secure access to alum, which is used for dyeing. Red silk was as expensive as gold, and anyone who possessed it as a commoner was sentenced to death. The guilds began a process whereby textiles made in homes were devalued, and with them the work of women in general. It seemed important that the people who made textiles should receive as little as possible of the profits that were earned from textiles in bulk. Eventually, women themselves were disempowered and lost all opportunities to earn their own living. We call the period in which this development took place the Age of Reason.
The enslavement of people from Africa and South America for the labor-intensive cultivation of cotton in the New World must be seen in this context, as well as the imperialist activities of the East India Company (1600 to 1874!), which used its own army to drive the once prosperous Indian weavers into ongoing exploitation in cotton cultivation. They became the replacement for the lack of slave labor after the proclamation of freedom in North America. It is not without reason that the spinning wheel is the symbol of the Indian independence movement around Mahatma Gandhi.
Feminists often label textile work as an "instrument of oppression" invented by men. This perpetuates the disregard for this work.
It is this narrative that we ignorantly and uncritically agree with. We blindly consume more than we need and dispose of the most minor stain. So it is only logical that we no longer give our children the option of sewing their own clothes, not to mention spinning, weaving and cord-making. We find it unimportant and have lost sight of it ourselves.
I want to do something about that.
Art is a language that speaks from heart to heart and mind to mind.
Alan Moore
As soon as I sit down and pick up the needle, I look forward to creating cuddly things in peace. These cuddly and touching things, which have been and continue to be created in an exuberant variety, are intimate and personal.
It is worth preserving the needle and thread as a valuable tool of communication, combining the useful with the creative. In this way, we not only recognize the enormous achievement that women have made in our human history, but can also point to it with pride.
We can use it ourselves to express ourselves creatively. We can share the know-how with our children, and the children with their children.
Quilts were born out of these human conditions, the need to make use of what is there, the usefulness, the togetherness and the desire for connection, meaning and creative enjoyment. The women of Gee's Bend and Rosie Lee Tompkins paint a powerful vision of just that.