Collective Quilting

Event Details

In celebration of our recent acquisition of five Gee’s Bend Quilts, the Phillips hosts a workshop and conversation with textile artist Julia Kwon.

Julia Kwon creates traditional and hybrid Korean textiles to challenge preexisting notions of what it means to be Korean and feminine as well as to examine the complexities of constructing identity within the contemporary context of globalism and cultural hybridity. She also explores community and personal relationship building through collaborative projects. Collective Quilting is a collaborative project that draws inspiration from the communal act of quilting—nurturing oneself, fostering creativity, sharing ideas, and building communities—that is common throughout different cultures.

Participants of the workshop create small-scale textile work to contribute to a larger collective quilt while discussing issues regarding gender, ethnicity, and other categories that are used for group-based othering. Although materials are provided, participants are invited to bring in remnant fabrics from their own lives to create patchworks, embroider images, and write texts to share their thoughts and personal experiences of objectification and tokenism. Each work will be collected at the end of the workshop to be added to a larger quilt in support and solidarity with others.