This is my entry for the Racism quilt call for entry from my Obama Quilters group. We decided to create a show of quilts with a focus on Racism. At the end of this posting in blue type is the Call for entry. I have been baking this concept in my head for months. Yesterday was the day!
I decided to do a 100% computer generated quilt. I used Adobe illustrator and used many advanced features to create gradients, transparencies and complex layers. The name of the quilt is ENOUGH – Cross words. Every time I thought about the topic – I just kept thinking – ENOUGH! Isn’t it 2010? Have we not learned that humans are humans? If they have blue eyes or brown eyes – does that matter? If they are tall or short? white or black? Come an – ya’ll – ENOUGH! We are all one race – the human race! If you listen to the words of Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas – it totally sums up the whole issue. Read these lyrics…they are so great – that is why I included them over the whole quilt (bel0w). We saw them in concert last week which is what put the whole concept together for me. I used the crosswords to incorporate type and the black and white boxes repeated well to include my striped element that is found in most of my quilts. The orange-pink Swiss cheese element is something that I created a few years ago for a project featuring the concept of ubuntu. That never came to be – but the ubunto image fit perfectly in as a message and in design. I will post more photos when the quilt is quilted and embellished.
One Tribe- Black Eyed Peas
One Tribe, one time, one planet, one race
It’s all one blood, don’t care about your face
The color of your eye or the tone of your skin
Don’t care where ya are
Don’t care where ya been
Cause where we gonna go
Is where we wanna be
The place where the little language is unity
And the continent is called Pangaea
And the main ideas are connected like a spear
No propaganda, They tried to upper hand us
Cause man I’m loving this peace
Man, man, I’m loving this peace
Man, man, I’m loving this peace
I don’t need no leader
That’s gonna force feed a
Concept that make me think I need to
Fear my brother and fear my sister
And shoot my neighbor or my big missile
If I had an enemy to {enemy}
If I had an enemy to {enemy}
If I had an enemy, then my enemy is gonna try to come and kill me
Cause I’m his enemy
There’s one tribe ya’ll
One tribe ya’ll
We are one people
Let’s cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let’s cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil that they feed ya
Remember that we’re one people
We are one people
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One tribe, one tribe
One tribe, one time, one planet, one {race}
Race, one love, one people, one {and}
Too many things that’s causing one {to}
To forget about the main cause
Connecting, uniting
But the evil is seen and alive in us
So our hopes are colliding
And our peace is sinking like Poseidon
But, we know that the one {one}
The evil one is threatened by the sum {sum}
So he’ll come and try and separate the sum
But he dumb, he didn’t know we had a way to overcome
Rejuvenated by the beating of the drum
Come together by the cycle of the hum
Freedom when all become one {one}
Forever
One tribe ya’ll
One tribe ya’ll
One tribe ya’ll
We are one people
Let’s cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil {evil}
Forget about all that evil {evil}
That evil that they feed ya
Let’s cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil {evil}
That evil, that they feed ya {feed ya}
Remember that we’re one people
We are one people
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One love, one blood, one people
One heart, one beat, we equal
Connected like the internet
United that’s how we do
Let’s break walls, so we see through
Let love and peace lead you
We could overcome the complication cause we need to
Help each other, make these changes
Brother, sister, rearrange this
The way I’m thinking that we can change this bad condition
Wait, use you mind and not your greed
Let’s connect and then proceed
This is something I believe
We are one, we’re all just people
One tribe ya’ll
One tribe ya’ll
One tribe ya’ll
We are one people
Let’s cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let’s cast amnesia
Let’s cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil, that they feed ya
We’re one tribe ya’ll
We people, we people
One tribe ya’ll
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
Let’s, let’s cast amnesia
Lord help me out
Trying to figure out what it’s all about {what it’s all about}
Cause we’re one in the same {one in the same}
Same joy, same pain
And I hope that you’re there when I need ya
Cause maybe we need amnesia
And I don’t wanna sound like a preacher
But we need to be one
One world, one love, one passion
One tribe, one understanding
Cause you and me can become one
Racism: A Dialogue in Quilts
An Exhibition by The Obama Quilters
Call for Entries: Make an art quilt, focusing on some aspect of racism.
Artwork should be dedicated to promoting a dialogue about the subject, in all its many complex forms, in a contemporary art quilt.
This exhibit hopes to examine the most complex and seldom discussed, most problematic and insistent, of all the issues in our culture today.
“Racism: the use of race to establish and justify a social hierarchy and system of power that privileges, preferences or advances certain individuals or groups of people usually at the expense of others. Racism is perpetuated through both interpersonal and institutional practices.
Challenging misconceptions about race: The idea of race has a complex and convoluted history in the United States and its development over the past few hundred years has left a legacy of misconceptions and confusion about race among many Americans. In a country founded on ideals of freedom and justice for all, notions of race served to rationalize slavery, justify the near-elimination of Native Americans and their cultures, and privilege people viewed as white.” From the American Anthropological Association:
http://www.understandingrace.org/resources/glossary.html#r
Requirements:
- Work must be finished and available by April 30, 2010
- Be available to be exhibited and possibly travel on tour for up to 2 years
- Have a hanging 4“ sleeve
- Contain a label with required information
- No size limit, although for quilts larger than 4’X4’ please give advance notice to determine display availability
- All quilts must be self-insured and transported at the quilter’s expense
Venue & Display Dates: To Be Determined
I reserve the right to deny acceptance of any quilt that would not be appropriate for public display.
Curator: Jeanette Thompson, jevirgo27@gmail.com
Stay tuned – more to come….
Zebrapatterns by Debra Gabel 