The word quilt usually connotes a grid work of fabric squares. And this, in fact, is what I expected to see when I visited the African American Quilt Exhibition in the Nelson Art Gallery at UC Davis. Thus, I was taken aback when I saw this quilt by Rose Ella Kincaid--Untitled.
At first glance the quilt appears to be a haphazard array of fabric scraps. But if the latter is true, then how (I ask myself) does the quilt “work?” To answer my question, I stopped to examine the quilt. It didn’t take long to realize that the quilt isn’t haphazard at all—actually, it is very unified. It can’t be denied that there is something visually pleasing about Kincaid's quilt.
Kincaid creates this unity in several ways. First, visual unity is achieved through the use of repetition. After looking closely, the viewer notices that some of the scraps of fabric used are actually not scraps at all. Instead, we see that Kincaid uses fabric to make a figurative representation of a woman, wearing a dress and hat, and a house. This motif repeats in various parts of the quilt and relates the parts to each other, thus unifying the entire quilt.
Second, Kincaid insures that the viewer’s eye is guided smoothly from one element to the next by implementing the idea of continuation. The viewer’s eye sees the thread of the quilt as a kind of implied line that continues throughout the entire piece. The viewer’s eye follows this line and bridges the gap between the dramatic color changes in fabric
A third way that Kincaid unifies the quilt is through balance. The different colored patches have been strategically placed in order to stabilize, and thus balance, the quilt. For example, the green color appears in (roughly) all four corners of the piece and once in the center. Equal visual weight has been given to the entire composition. This allows the quilt to be seen as one unifying piece instead of many separate pieces fighting for space.
It should now be clear why quilts should no longer be thought of as a simple grid work of fabric squares. They require much thoughtful design, as does a painting on canvas, or a building in Ancient Greece , in order to become a successfully unified composition. Thus, this quilt, the other quilts in the exhibit, and many other quilts in our everyday lives, are a form of design.
