Place Holder

A visual, tactile memory to create moments for storytelling and communication with the next generation

I want to tell you a story…

Fabric taken (stolen?) from my grandma (shoutout granny!)

Prologue

Eight months ago, I started this project thinking about memories, story, and how we are not so different from our ancestors. I was drawn to historical artifacts that are proof of civilizations that existed hundreds of years before we did; we are but passing beings in history, but we think we’re so much more. How many other people thought so, too? Did any of them think of their cave paintings, red clay ceramics, parchment papers being unearthed and marveled at by humans thousands of years later? How many more poured their entire being into their work, hoping that it would be known and loved in a different (kinder?) time? There is a certain kind of awe in knowing you stand on a dirt ball floating through space, and someone, not too long ago, stood there too, staring at the stars.

We are all connected through design, even if we don’t (consciously) practice it.

The Journey

Quilting became my medium of choice, and after extensive research it became the appropriate medium. Legacy quilts were a way to document a family’s history and cherished memories; collage quilting, or crazy quilting, in general was a cost-effective way of making an insulating bed spread for low-income families; applique and embroidery were often used to display elaborate visual motifs, but also as a mode of protest and documentation (see Queen Lili’uokalani’s crazy quilt, and the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt).

Depicted in the 143 x 193cm quilt are several memories and stories that are important to my family and showcase who we are. Some depict a visual memory, such as the pool flags; others insinuate several memories, namely the ‘laminate’ grain and paw prints. By interacting with the quilt, you learn more about us and find joy in knowing that a bunch of strangers are a lot like you.

You may notice some of them don’t depict anything at all. As this quilt is used and bequeathed, we will continue to embroider symbols and pictograms of events, milestones, stories, memories, etc. onto the blocks. Perhaps in a hundred years or so, it is covered in these little images.

Epilogue

It has been a struggle, but I think I’d do it again. My family now has a physical heirloom that can be passed down, and when it gets ‘too full’, they can make a new one! I encourage you to stake your claim to your place in history. Make a quilt! Share it with others! Invite them to collaborate! Build up your community so children decades from now ‘see how they love one another’! You have no idea the power a story of a good person in dark times holds.

“You are capable of great things; by existing you are already everything we could ever want”.

This is, at it’s core, a love story that transcends time, as we are all passing beings hanging on by a thread.