Saturday, June 25th from 2pm-7pm
Fashion Denver | 1070 Bannock Street
Come and tell your story..
It’s hard to believe that commonplace objects, such as clothes, shoes, and books, will tell the tales of this time in history a few years down the road. However, fads and fashions become pieces of nostalgia and remind us of times past (case in point: the recent obsession with everything 80’s). But even the simplest of things can become pieces of bonafide art, a point Eliza Fernand makes with her touring project, Quilt Stories, coming to Fashion Denver this Saturday.
Photo from Boise Weekly’s article about this fantastic project..
Eliza travels the country, setting up camp in various cities, and collecting stories and anecdotes about quilts from passersby. “Quilts are such a part of the American life, that everyone has had some run-in with a quilt at some point,” she says. “The stories are sparked by a quilt memory but their contents vary greatly, this is what I had hoped- I encourage tangents. One trend I have noticed is that quilts are often given to mark rights of passage- birth, graduation, marriage.”
Throughout her travels, Eliza has heard many fascinating and touching stories, signifying strong connections between people and communities. Her favorite, however, comes out of Salt Lake City:
One woman told me that being inside of the tent reminded her of hanging out underneath a quilt while several people were working on it. Women gather with their children in a home, stretching the quilt out on a frame that fills the entire room. The mothers are around the edges, all stitching their own space at once. They poke the needle through the top of the quilt, passing it to a child who is underneath. They point to where they would like the needle to come back to them, and the child pokes it up through to their mother.
Eliza’s travels to gather stories about quilts is a part of her larger work, Quilt Projects, which looks at the history and themes of quilt-making, applied to modern day life and attitudes. Though one doesn’t necessarily think of quilting as a form of artwork – I certainly wouldn’t categorize my grandmother with the likes Michelangelo or Monet – essentially the work of creating a quilt embodies all the fundamentals of creating iconic art: storytelling, beauty and aesthetics, bringing communities together, and passing down cultural traditions.
The project began officially a year and a half ago, when Eliza began an artist’s residency in Boise, ID, with a fellow artist named Anna Weber, from Portland. However, the project has come together as a result of her goals and ideals as an artist and teacher, such as reusing and recycling materials, teaching self-sustaining skills, bringing artists to the “everyday” person by engaging whole communities, and encouraging collaboration.
Though Eliza has no personal history or significant connection with quilts, she has quite a fascination with them and is beginning the construction of a traditional white Amish quilt. She’ll be taking it on her tour, and each visitor can contribute a stitch, adding a personal touch and coming-together of all who visit her.
The quilt, Eliza, and the unique and powerful tour will be visiting Fashion Denver on June 25th collecting stories, socializing, and connecting quilters from around the country.