NATE’S QUILTS 1 AND 2 (FOR SOMETIME BETWEEN 3:30 AND 5:30 ON FEBUARY 24, 2023)
April 2023
Two machine-pieced cotton quilts
5’ x 7.5’ each
5’ x 7.5’ each
Made in the immediate aftermath of my 16-year-old brother’s suicide in Febuary 2023, these two quilts are designed from a tesselation of Nate’s Rubik’s cube in the state that he left it when he died.
Grappling heavily with the fact that I did not see or speak to my brother for months before he passed, I have been fascinated by the few remaining objects I have that hold tangible evidence of his touch. His Rubik’s cube being one. He was able to solve the puzzle in about 2 minutes if he tried, but had left the cube unsolved upon his death.
Created at the size of the floorplan of the room in my childhood home that he died in, these quilts serve as an immediate reaction to learning of his death: the wish that I could have done just one thing to change the catastrophic outcome of the worst moment of his life. In the processing over the next couple weeks I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to make objects that could hold him, could cushion him, could surround him and could keep him warm. These quilts are the first iteration of what will doubtlessly be an extended and evolving project.
This project has taken up a massive majority of my time over the past couple months and I would like to thank all of those who helped bring these incredibly important pieces to completion: Caroline Branch, Roman Ross, Eileen Morley, Justin Cockrell, Hillary Waters Fayle and most of all, HH Hiaasen.
Shown at the Spring 2023 iteration of To Keep You Warm at the Institute Of Contemporary Art at VCU, on nicole killian’s between a book and a soft place and Riley Hooker’s Sit(uation)
Grappling heavily with the fact that I did not see or speak to my brother for months before he passed, I have been fascinated by the few remaining objects I have that hold tangible evidence of his touch. His Rubik’s cube being one. He was able to solve the puzzle in about 2 minutes if he tried, but had left the cube unsolved upon his death.
Created at the size of the floorplan of the room in my childhood home that he died in, these quilts serve as an immediate reaction to learning of his death: the wish that I could have done just one thing to change the catastrophic outcome of the worst moment of his life. In the processing over the next couple weeks I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to make objects that could hold him, could cushion him, could surround him and could keep him warm. These quilts are the first iteration of what will doubtlessly be an extended and evolving project.
This project has taken up a massive majority of my time over the past couple months and I would like to thank all of those who helped bring these incredibly important pieces to completion: Caroline Branch, Roman Ross, Eileen Morley, Justin Cockrell, Hillary Waters Fayle and most of all, HH Hiaasen.
Shown at the Spring 2023 iteration of To Keep You Warm at the Institute Of Contemporary Art at VCU, on nicole killian’s between a book and a soft place and Riley Hooker’s Sit(uation)