Monday 4 February 2008

AIDS quilts

These amazing AIDS quilts were on display at a gay festival in Barcelona last Spring. I find them heart-breakingly sad, but nevertheless stunning. They're frequently quite vibrant and riotous and their creativity is often used as a celebration of people's lives.
I hear they're becoming less popular because they're perceived to be mournful and sad. Of course it's true, they're a reminder of something awful and are a part of the process of grief for many of the makers. Yet I can't help but find the colour, variety, and amazing imagery to be positive (naively, perhaps?). The memories, planning, time and love that's gone into making them is surely a beautiful and wonderful thing.
To me they're a valuable and important part of textile history and I'd like to try and create a small visual library of them to pop on here every now and again, so if anyone wants to send me any - please do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Loving it man- keep it coming, this is cool stuff. where you takin us next?