I am making a quilt using images of artefacts, documents and photographs from Glenside Hospital Museum which have been digitally printed on to fabric.
I made an initial patchwork of the images, then cut them up and patch worked them together again. Through this process the images become very jumbled and fragmented, just like our attempts to understand the experiences of people living in asylums 100 years ago.
There were several reasons for choosing to make a quilt. These include - The history of quilts as objects made from scraps of things which once had another purpose (e.g. worn out clothing) – creating something new from something old. Quilts can be seen as soft, tactile, practical archives of families and communities, or objects that tell stories of often marginalised groups (e.g. the Gee’s Bend quilt makers, the 1841 convict ship HMS Rajah quilt, the AIDS memorial quilts).
A discussion on our Exploring Collections course in which a group member used the phrase “objects of comfort”. A quilt is inherently an object of comfort and warmth, in contrast to the harsh, cold, clinical world of healthcare (past and present).
One side of the quilt will be the abstract patchwork, the other side will be a blue hospital blanket with some words stitched in. This image shows an example of a patchwork block and the words waiting to be embroidered, both on top of the blue hospital blanket.