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Black Under the Bark: quilt and sketchbook
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2024
Artist: Gannon Falconer
Medium: Quilt materials: Cotton, heat printed fabric, cotton batting
Sketchbook materials: Collage, marker, pen, pencil
Object number: F.2024.137.CC.1-2
Description1. Sketchbook
2. Quilt
A quilt that reflects the legacy of Gee’s Bend quilt makers and the symbolism of underground railroad maps. Influenced by slave narratives and Black folk art, it highlights quilting as an act of resistance and perseverance.
Description by the maker:
Inspired by Gee’s Bend quilt makers and underground railroad maps, this quilt touches on the beauty and resilience of Black Americans first “protest garment” and explores pattern and flags as a connection to a nation’s troubled past.
This quilt was originally a part of a larger piece, Black Under the Bark, and was massively inspired by slave narratives and magical realism depicted through Black folk artists like Bill Traylor and the book Beloved by Toni Morrison. I wanted to take quilts which were originally such an insular and hidden art and shed light on this generational art form which still exists today, going strong within the walls of Gee’s Bend Alabama homes.
Black under the Bark is inherently a slave narrative, yet it seeks to examine and present a different side of the traditional slave narrative; instead of violence and misery being the forefront of visual intrigue, it is instead the objects of resistance and perseverance. It is incredibly important to remember our pasts and find ways to reinvent objects and results of struggle into something empowering and modern and that was my primary intention within this work.
2. Quilt
A quilt that reflects the legacy of Gee’s Bend quilt makers and the symbolism of underground railroad maps. Influenced by slave narratives and Black folk art, it highlights quilting as an act of resistance and perseverance.
Description by the maker:
Inspired by Gee’s Bend quilt makers and underground railroad maps, this quilt touches on the beauty and resilience of Black Americans first “protest garment” and explores pattern and flags as a connection to a nation’s troubled past.
This quilt was originally a part of a larger piece, Black Under the Bark, and was massively inspired by slave narratives and magical realism depicted through Black folk artists like Bill Traylor and the book Beloved by Toni Morrison. I wanted to take quilts which were originally such an insular and hidden art and shed light on this generational art form which still exists today, going strong within the walls of Gee’s Bend Alabama homes.
Black under the Bark is inherently a slave narrative, yet it seeks to examine and present a different side of the traditional slave narrative; instead of violence and misery being the forefront of visual intrigue, it is instead the objects of resistance and perseverance. It is incredibly important to remember our pasts and find ways to reinvent objects and results of struggle into something empowering and modern and that was my primary intention within this work.