United Kingdom, 1989
www.hannasteenbergen.com
Thesis: Growth in the Restriction
You are what you do
Patchwork is difficult. It encompasses mixed feelings. It yearns to some extent for being a seamless stretch of fabric. It yearns for the situational circumstances that would allow for a smooth, crack free surface. The context of a better life. Yet the entire technique and aesthetic would not exist [or at least how it has taken form today] if it were not for poverty. Lack of income and a necessity for warmth meant that the maker had to be resourceful. A survival instinct kicked in. Unknowingly this has loaded the simple action of attaching two scraps of fabric together with something special. Something I cannot fully grasp. A quality that would be absent if there was enough money to buy a single length of cloth. Yet the people who patch for this reason; out of necessity, strive for being in a situation where financial means would allow for the purchase of this single stretch of material.
