This is a write-up for upcoming exhibit in Ottawa, Canada
2 December 2011-19 February 2012
Edna Patterson-Petty, African-American Contemporary Quilts
Contemporary galleries 1 & 3
"Along with jazz, quilting is the uniquely American contribution to world art that bears the legacy of our African heritage and carries it into our common future...."*
The contemporary art-quilts of East St. Louis, Illinois artist Edna J. Patterson-Petty are improvisational and 'jazzy' in their aesthetic quality. They function as conveyors of memories and histories of place-slavery, race and racism, community and self-emancipation. The quilts in this exhibition not only speak about adversity, they are testaments of the inventiveness of African-American culture as expressed in the syncopated jazz beat.
A consummate recycler, Patterson-Petty creates her colourful art out of scraps of cotton and silk fabrics, old clothing, organic and non organic materials found primarily around her home. In her quilts Patterson-Petty fuses traditional quilt-making techniques from European, African-American and African cultures and extends them to produce visual narratives that employ a distinct applique' collage aesthetic. The quilts seem to go against the grain of the rigid geometric structure associated with traditional quilts. They are pictorial compositions that are infused with histories, as well as collective stories about the current socio-political moment.
Emancipation and agency are central themes in Patterson-Petty's work. The quilt 'And still I Rise' (2010) presents black women as agents who have survived in the face of adversity and oppression. In this quilt Patterson-Petty creates coherency from the fragments of a number of African icons, fabrics and texts, such as advertisement for the sale of a slave. 'If it weren't for the Women'(2010) pays homage to the important roles women play in ongoing struggles for social transformation. It is the last in a series of quilts in the artist's Obama series (2008-2010). The development and evolution of jazz as an African-American form and idiom are celebrated in works such as 'Trane Revisited' (1996-2010) and 'Blues in the Night' (1996). Patterson-Petty's engagement with jazz is also in recognition of the cultural specificity of the city of East St. Louis and its position in relation to jazz history. East St. Louis was the boyhood home of jazz great, Miles Davis.
Seen together, the works in Edna Patterson-Petty: African-American Contemporary Quilts provide us with an encounter with African-American experiences and stories told through her spirited improvisational process of remaking and refashioning.
Andrea Fatona, Guest Curator
* Ringgold, Faith, "Preface," Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts, by Carolyn Mazloomi (New York : Clarkson Potter, 1998) p.8.
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| Image credit: Edna Patterson-Petty, Blues in the Night, 1996 |
2 December 2011-19 February 2012
Edna Patterson-Petty, African-American Contemporary Quilts
Contemporary galleries 1 & 3
"Along with jazz, quilting is the uniquely American contribution to world art that bears the legacy of our African heritage and carries it into our common future...."*
The contemporary art-quilts of East St. Louis, Illinois artist Edna J. Patterson-Petty are improvisational and 'jazzy' in their aesthetic quality. They function as conveyors of memories and histories of place-slavery, race and racism, community and self-emancipation. The quilts in this exhibition not only speak about adversity, they are testaments of the inventiveness of African-American culture as expressed in the syncopated jazz beat.
A consummate recycler, Patterson-Petty creates her colourful art out of scraps of cotton and silk fabrics, old clothing, organic and non organic materials found primarily around her home. In her quilts Patterson-Petty fuses traditional quilt-making techniques from European, African-American and African cultures and extends them to produce visual narratives that employ a distinct applique' collage aesthetic. The quilts seem to go against the grain of the rigid geometric structure associated with traditional quilts. They are pictorial compositions that are infused with histories, as well as collective stories about the current socio-political moment.
Emancipation and agency are central themes in Patterson-Petty's work. The quilt 'And still I Rise' (2010) presents black women as agents who have survived in the face of adversity and oppression. In this quilt Patterson-Petty creates coherency from the fragments of a number of African icons, fabrics and texts, such as advertisement for the sale of a slave. 'If it weren't for the Women'(2010) pays homage to the important roles women play in ongoing struggles for social transformation. It is the last in a series of quilts in the artist's Obama series (2008-2010). The development and evolution of jazz as an African-American form and idiom are celebrated in works such as 'Trane Revisited' (1996-2010) and 'Blues in the Night' (1996). Patterson-Petty's engagement with jazz is also in recognition of the cultural specificity of the city of East St. Louis and its position in relation to jazz history. East St. Louis was the boyhood home of jazz great, Miles Davis.
Seen together, the works in Edna Patterson-Petty: African-American Contemporary Quilts provide us with an encounter with African-American experiences and stories told through her spirited improvisational process of remaking and refashioning.
Andrea Fatona, Guest Curator
* Ringgold, Faith, "Preface," Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts, by Carolyn Mazloomi (New York : Clarkson Potter, 1998) p.8.
