With stress relief, mindfulness and boosted self-confidence a few of their proven benefits, it’s little wonder crafts had a surge of interest during the pandemic. Surrounded by illness and cooped up inside, thousands turned to knitting, sewing, collage and other tactile creativities.
Another unproven benefit? Crafts are about connecting disparate pieces — skeins of yarn, composite images, repurposed scraps — into something new, an attractive concept when the world is falling apart. An exhibit on view at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin argues that quilts in particular have much in common with another discipline that’s all about making connections: maps.
“ Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts” presents 18 works spanning from the first half of the 19th century into contemporary times, with materials ranging from fabric cast-offs to wood blocks to brocades. Some are fairly literal maps, such as the Map Quilt from 1886 Virginia, where an unidentified maker unites scraps of silk and cotton velvet with embroidery and brocade into a richly colorful outline of the contiguous United States.
There’s also the Pacific Quilt, a gigantic, wall-sized quilted tapestry by contemporary artist Sarah FitzSimons that mimics oceanic topography and currents, and a piece of Jerry Gretzinger’s ongoing imaginary city mapping project, which he creates square-by-square.
Others borrow from navigational imagery, such as Nora Ezell’s 1977 Star Quilt, which uses an eight-pointed Star of Hope pattern to recall how Black people escaping slavery in the South used the night sky to orient towards freedom.
Many of the works were made in times of grave uncertainty, such as the Cross River Album Quilt, stitched of cotton, silk and wool embroidery in 1861 New York by a group of women, aged 15 to 55, as the U.S. Civil War kicked off.
Catie Anderson, curator of education, said it shows how each maker saw the world and processed its events through their choice of materials and motifs, including stars and stripes, floral bouquets and a pair of red stockings and shoes.
“Quilts are a way to make a path through a place or experience, as well as to understand and better interpret your experiences,” she said. “You’re making something greater as a whole that feels like you’re coming through it on the other side.”
Anderson said she hopes the diversity of the exhibit broadens how viewers appreciate both maps and quilts — including those found at home — as objects with practical functions, aesthetic beauty and that tell a story about a place and time.
“Understanding why individuals may be drawn to create a quilt or a map can be used as a through-line throughout history,” she said. “The more you look, the more you see, and the more you're willing to broaden your own understanding or experience of something, and that is always enriching.”
Map links
- Where North American weather stations are breaking temperature records (Twitter)
- The drying reservoirs of the West (Flowing Data)
- Mapping the hottest temperatures around the world (Al Jazeera)
- A new book about how the brain maps and locates information (New York Times)
- Outside magazine launched an impressive package of features on wayfinding and exploration this month. One highlight: How Indigenous communities are reclaiming the map (Outside)
- Victorian-era maps reveal enduring health disparities in the UK (BBC)
Laura Bliss
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