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Memoriam
Walker, Michele, born 1947 - Enlarge image
Memoriam
- Object:
Quilt
- Place of origin:
Brighton (made)
- Date:
2002 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Walker, Michele, born 1947 (designer and maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Quilted plastic and steel wire wool
- Museum number:
T.6:1-2009
- Gallery location:
In Storage
'Memoriam' is the last quilt in a body of work which draws inspiration from the patterns and ethos of traditional quilt making, and reflects on the terrifying fragmentation of identity that occurs with memory loss. This work was a response to the artist's mother's suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The knotted border evokes the gesture of twisting hair while lost in thought. Instead of cotton or wool, 'Memoriam' is wadded with wire, deliberately undermining the quilt's traditional associations with safety and comfort.
In the study for 'Memoriam', Walker included a screen printed imate of her mother's wedding veil, looped and stitched to reference the universal remembrance ribbons which started with AIDS awareness. Juxtaposed with 'Memoriam', the study is a poignant reminder of both the hopes and fears of a young bride at the start of her married life.
Michele Walker creates multi-layered quilts that unite personal testimony with social commentary. She was one of a small group of contemporary artists who helped to revive an interest in British quilt making in the 1970s and 1980s. Her interest in the tradition includes not only techniques, but also a fascination with the often unknown women who produced quilts; objects which are on the whole unsigned, undated and undocumented, but often retain within them a fading collective or personal memory.
