The Studio Diary
Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers exhibition, Royal Academy, London
When I was in London at the weekend I visited the Royal Academy to see the exhibition Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers. It is an exhibition of the work of Black artists from the American South, part of the collection of The Souls Grown Deep Foundation.
What drew me to visit was the inclusion of the work of the Gees Bend quiltmakers - the chance to see their textiles in the flesh, with all the marks of hand stitching and wear.
It is always a slightly odd feeling, I find, to see domestic textiles hung in white space art galleries - they lose something, in the same way that they do in photographs. They lose that feeling of being made with love for an individual, hung like modern art, the making somehow becomes secondary to the formal artistic elements of design and pattern.
So while some of the more recent quilts were specifically made for display, the earlier ones have the marks of being wrapped around people, washed and worn through decades, until they softened and frayed at the edges. I love these best.
Rather than take photographs I filmed them - to try and show some of that quality. My favourite quilt is the one in the header for this blog - Housetop by Rachel Carey George - made in the 1930s from faded cottons. The thing that brings it to life for me is that extra black border on the right and top, the little fading coloured tail that it ends in.
If you are interested in finding out more about the history of the quitlmaking in Gees Bend I recommend this documentary
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