Apocalypse

The Making of....

When the theme of the Dutch  Quilters guild 2022  Art quilt competition became known, I started thinking about it.

At first I didn't want to participate. I didn't feel like making a quilt. And the dimensions for 3D, 30 x 30 x 30 cm,  were very small...

Sometime in January 2022  I suddenly had an idea. A 3D globe. But how do you make something like that? Due to the lockdown, we were unable to go to the store. On the internet I found a Styrofoam sphere at a shop for flower decoration materials. Convenient! Exactly 30 cm, in two parts.

But how does such a thing stand? I was reminded of the globe on such a pen, a bit slanting. A pen in it didn't seem convenient to me. So then sawed off a piece off the bottom with a bread knife. That way I could also work on it better. The top also went off, I joined it again with my stapler, so that a cavity was created. The sphere consisted of two parts  which in the end I assembled and also connected with the stapler.

Oh yes it had to be a quilt...

It had to look like a globe, so the continents had to be added! With a printed picture of the world I knew where about the continents should go and, not unimportantly, the approximate form.

                                        

I used to learn moulage and that came in handy now. Every time a piece of the world made with a layer of batting: stitched, pleated, processed with the punch machine, my sewing machine and free machine embroidery.

Every time back to the sphere, pinned and then the next piece, always trying for size and then connect to the previous one. A fairly long vertical seam remained open so that the whole thing fit snugly around the sphere.

       

   

The top of the sphere has become more three-dimensional with many pleated pieces of fabric and paddings. While working on the sphere, all kinds of disaster films haunted my head of floods, melting ice, fires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

When the ‘jacket’ was ready I pinned the whole thing on the sphere and put it together by hand. Then I  quilted it by hand. For that I inserted one hand into the ball and worked with a long needle back and forth.

I made a pad to exhibit it on : the Universe.

Artist statement:

Apocalypse

Doomsday scenario: an Apocalypse of planet earth that explodes.

Too high concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, rainforest deforestation, intense industry etc. lead to climate change and then more frequent and intense natural disasters such as heat waves, wildfires, drought, floods, and storms.

Therefore: Limits to growth!