Silk Quilts
2019This work considers the play between visual interest & visual overload, and the involuntary switch from one to the other. After experiencing a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and reflecting on the loss and slow recovery of my own sensory gating–the process by which one’s brain sifts and discards unnecessary stimulation in order to allow prolonged focus–this body of quilts is the product of my arrival at a different state of mind.
Quilting here serves as a meditative and repetitive process to temper the often exhausting meandering of my imagination, embodied by the patterns and prints themselves. Auditory and visual sensory experiences move from the environment to a composition and become a part of each piece. Mirror tiles warp visual space, and as fabric interacts with background and shadow, movement prompts new instances of noticing as well as perceptive readjustment. The aim here is to explore the extent to which we can push sensory intake before losing comprehension, and to question the latent interpretive lenses that influence our perception.
The fabric quilts were sewn on the floor of my mother’s house using my Mennonite grandmother’s Janome Memory Craft sewing machine, building upon our family’s centuries-long involvement with quilting.