Alone Together: More exhibitions of the Quarantine Quilts
Displayed together, The Quarantine Quilts evoke a home – a place we all spent time thinking the sort of thoughts that its patchmakers share in the squares of the design. Following our exhibitions in the Garden and Barn where they were co-produced, the Quilts will next be on display at Barnstaple Library from Saturday 14 January until 10 February and The Beehive in Honiton from 13 February to 17 March 2023. We have funding to support people to visit using public or community transport. Contact us at catherine @ significantseams .org .uk for more information.
Discussions regarding further exhibition dates and locations are ongoing and may be forthcoming. Photos by Jim Wileman.
Scores of people from across Devon and beyond participated in creating the Quarantine Quilts during the first lockdown in 2020. While the artists who started the project thought they’d be making one quilt from contributed patches, they ended up making three. Each quilts has a patch naming all of the contributors on the back.
The artists who assembled The Quarantine Quilts worked socially distanced in an open air barn – initially assembling packages of materials (they sent out over 120 kits) and later stitching together patches, basting the layers of the quilts, and eventually adding the finishing touches.
The Quarantine Quilts are co-produced artworks. Individuals contributed their art on 6 inch squares, and then the project artists came up with ideas of ways to reflect the messages in the patches in a meaningful way. The resulting artwork has many layers of meaning.