Kate Just & Tal Fitzpatrick
The @covid19quilt project is a global craft project instigated by artists @katejustknits and @talfitzpatrick to share Covid-19 experiences of isolation, community and care.
Launched on the 5th of April 2020, this project will continue to grow until this global pandemic is declared over and restrictions enforcing social distancing and self-isolation are lifted.
Already, the @covid19quilt account has close to 300 contributions by artists and makers from 25 countries.
To be a part of this project, artists and makers are invited to contribute a square image of a textile piece they created alongside a text, to share the stories behind these works and how they relate to their experience during Covid-19. The @Covid19quilt takes form as these contributions are collected and shared via the @covid19quilt Instagram account. The accruing squares of the Instagram feed become the quilt.
The contributions to the @covid19quilt reflect a beautiful engagement with textile processes that address the diverse range of issues people around the world are facing.
Using cross stitch, knitting, quilting, embroidery and hand sewing, contributors to this project - through their work - address many themes and ideas. These include: privilege and power in relation to Covid-19, self-nurturing and imagination as tools of resilience, the role of craft in renewing our sense of tangible material connection, the issue of Covid-19 motivated racism, the reality that the challenges that people living with mental health or trauma face are further compounded by isolation; and the importance of myth and imagination to our survival.
