A rooted history in fabric

Quilts immortalized in Century of Comfort exhibition

Those of us with roots in Ontario, or at least, significantly long family trees, there must be a woman in the family - most certainly, even if they may not know it - who quilted. For us, it was my grandmother - the other one being from Italy - and as a Mennonite, she pieced together the scraps of old dresses and the bottoms of hemmed pants onto the backs of sugar bags (sugar used to come in large swaths of white, durable cloth).
These quickly became quilts under the strain of candlelight, and though little valued then, they today are artifacts of a by-gone age in our industrialized, sweat-shopped world of textiles.
But now, a new appreciation of quilts is being fostered by the Royal Ontario Museum. With A Century of Comfort: Quilts from Oxford County 1900-2000, 23 quilts display the progression of the quilting practice from its origins as a rural tradition to being an urban art form. Feminist artists appropriated the practice as a kind of homage to those ancestors which had come before. By taking on an art form that was a part of women's day-to-day struggles and by using it to express newfound forms of freedom, women artists wove together the memory of women's work with their aspirations for new understandings of femininity.
In A Century of Comfort, one can see the transformation and elevation of the art of quilting. It begins with a very utilitarian theme. Hung on the wall, with a professionalism and lighting set-up probably unimaginable to the women who first made them, these quilts seem very displaced from the cabins and makeshift homes they most likely were taken from. They are not leaning up folded in a rocking chair beside a blazing fire or wrapped around the shivering body of a child who may have had TB.
Who knows what lives were conceived or ended in the lining of these works of art? In this sense, the quilts carry with them an aura of history unlike any other artifact. Because quilts are so affiliated with the body, with sleep, with the bed, and the life cycle, because they are quilts that were used and not just created for fashion, there is something corpse-like about them, as though they were once living. They are more fossils than fabric. They resonate.
Many may not know that the history of quilts is also intimately linked with that of slavery. When slaves from the States ran to Canada for their freedom, other slaves left messages on their quilts - perhaps an arrow pointing in the right direction. These quilts would be left overnight, hanging on a line strategically, trying to guide those who would be travelling in the dark.
The "urban" component of the show displays what current, living artists have done with the medium. With new fabrics, jagged, contemporary cuts of cloth, they have revitalized the art and brought it back to life. On the other hand, these quilts were made to be exhibited, and there is something about that intention that changes the nature of the end product. Not sure why, it just seems to.
With the show on until early January in the Hydro One Canadiana Exhibition Gallery, viewers may be inspired to take on the craft themselves during the cold winter months. Toronto viewers are lucky to receive such a show, given that the curator's intention was to only bring the exhibit to cities around the world bearing the name "Woodstock."
A Century of Comfort is the first travelling exhibit curated by the Woodstock Museum National Historic Site and opened in Woodstock, Ontario and will also be displayed in Woodstock, Vermont; Summerside, neighbouring town of Woodstock, Prince Edward Island; and Woodstock, England. The ROM is only the third non-Woodstock venue for this exhibit.
Bring the kids and grandma too!
A Century of Comfort: Quilts from Oxford County 1900-2000, shows at the Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, until January 25, 2003. For more information call 416.586.8000.

Publication Date: 2002-10-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1816