Dobard published Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, and the story cycloned through trusted centers of news and knowledge: the New York Times Book Review, NPR, and others. That’s according to Marsha MacDowell, a quilt scholar and director of the Quilt Index, a massive online catalog of more than 90,000 quilts. Prior to 1999, the codes were unheard of even to the African American quilting community. “They could feel or sense light through their struggle of trying to get to freedom.” “The orange is life, or light,” she explains, pointing at the glowing horizon line on her quilt, The Johnson House. For Tindall, the quilts become vehicles for the voices and footprints of people running for their lives. Tindall uses combinations of cottons, raw Dupioni silks, Swarovski crystals, natural fibers, Malian mud cloth, and even glitter to convey the spiritual, intangible components of her narrative compositions. Often made from scraps of old dresses, burlap sacks, and dish cloths, it gives physical, even functional, form to a family or individual’s past and present. Quilts were often made to commemorate important family events such as marriage, a birth, or moving to a new place. Our conversation stretched to weeks as I sought more detailed information about how they were used.Īt its center, a quilt is an assemblage of historical and creative cues in the form of fabrics, shapes, symbols, textures and colors.
#Freedome code 2017 full
She recently gave a lecture about them to a full room in Johnson House. Though not all of her quilts are coded, Tindall is a believer and defender of the codes. I want to convey a message of hope, freedom, love for the slaves.” The slaves, the Johnson family who protected them, that presence was the colors in the sky of the quilt. “I walked around where they slept, where they ate. “You really get a sense of enslaved people there,” she says. Built in 1768 in the heart of Germantown, Johnson House’s woodwork, flooring, and glass are all original to the house. Tindall hopes her handmade quilts hanging in the Johnson House, a crucial station on the Underground Railroad and now a National Historic Site in Philadelphia, embody the spirit of the house and the presence of those who passed through. “I’m thankful I am able to create something of comfort.” “When I’m creating a quilt, I’m focused on the purpose of the quilt,” she says. Sharon Tindall is a Virginia-based quilter, educator, and one in a tradition of contemporary quilters who design textile works inspired by this “quilt code.” Some do, and maybe it did, but others question the authenticity of such events.
Nimble fingers working in secret, armed with needle and thread, engaging with a visual language, doing their part for freedom. Log Cabin = Seek shelter now, the people here are safe to speak with
These quilts were embedded with a kind of code, so that by reading the shapes and motifs sewn into the design, an enslaved person on the run could know the area’s immediate dangers or even where to head next.īow Tie = Dress in disguise to appear of a higher statusīear Paw = Follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food According to legend, a safe house along the Underground Railroad was often indicated by a quilt hanging from a clothesline or windowsill.
0 kommentar(er)
