I went to the Gee's Bend exhibit quite sometime ago here at the Indianapolis Museum of Art with my mother as a "mother daughter date". If you arent familiar please google this and check it out. It is an exhibit of handmade HANDMADE quilts from the 20's to present from a group of African American women all from essentially the same family in rural Alabama and traced back essentially to one of the first known and NAMED slaves Dinah Pettiway....obviously her last name (as well as her first I am sure) was her masters last name and his choosing.
You must understand that I do NOT do crafts, quilt, paint etc....I write a touch and thats it. I am not crafty so it was not the actual quilts I admired. The fact that they were made BY HAND comepletely does however blow my mind. All of the threading uneven and seen, nothing perfect, no patterns, no matching cloth/fabric. It was PERFECTION in its IMPERFECTION.
There is nothing I could type that would convey the depth of emotion I felt while at this exhibit. My mother and I both cried.
Quilts made of slaves work pants, cotton sacks and feed bags. Quilts made to keep those families warm not to look pretty folded up on the end of the bed. PURPOSE......so much spirit are in those quilts hanging on those walls. I can hear them, see their hands, cry for their struggle and their determination to keep on keepin on.
Do people know what they are seeing when they look at these pieces? I could go on and on.....what were there names before they came here? Who did they love? Who did they give life to? How did they die? Why WERENT they sooo soo broken? In spirit? Who gave them the courage to sing around that quilt?
They play a video as well and you can see some of the women that are living still.......amazing amazing women.YOU MUST GO!!!
You must understand that I do NOT do crafts, quilt, paint etc....I write a touch and thats it. I am not crafty so it was not the actual quilts I admired. The fact that they were made BY HAND comepletely does however blow my mind. All of the threading uneven and seen, nothing perfect, no patterns, no matching cloth/fabric. It was PERFECTION in its IMPERFECTION.
There is nothing I could type that would convey the depth of emotion I felt while at this exhibit. My mother and I both cried.
Quilts made of slaves work pants, cotton sacks and feed bags. Quilts made to keep those families warm not to look pretty folded up on the end of the bed. PURPOSE......so much spirit are in those quilts hanging on those walls. I can hear them, see their hands, cry for their struggle and their determination to keep on keepin on.
Do people know what they are seeing when they look at these pieces? I could go on and on.....what were there names before they came here? Who did they love? Who did they give life to? How did they die? Why WERENT they sooo soo broken? In spirit? Who gave them the courage to sing around that quilt?
They play a video as well and you can see some of the women that are living still.......amazing amazing women.YOU MUST GO!!!
