Stitching the wars (2014-2017)

Stitching the Wars, was a 2-year collaboration with older people in Derbyshire, initiated by artist Lois Blackburn, who met with local people to devise and stitch two quilts and gather reminiscence. Philip Davenport worked with the groups later to refine the material into poems, and short oral history interviews, which are embroidered into the quilts and punctuate the Stitching the Wars book. In a sense, this work is a history, with quilts the page on which it’s written.

The first quilt, A Bomber’s Moon, describes the transforming effect of the First and Second World Wars on rural life. An ancient world of horses and humans is invaded by machines. The quilt is an aerial view of fields and hillsides. Perhaps it’s the view from the bomber of the title? Into this “landscape” are sewn words and phrases that link to the reminiscence and poems in this book. As we read, it becomes evident that some of the words are in German — but whose side are we on?

The second quilt, Fresh Air and Poverty, describes a quieter war, the struggle everyday people made to keep their families fed and clothed in the years between and after the two World Wars. The richness of the materials used for this quilt belie the words: “Two little love birds, fresh air and poverty.” Here we find tramps on the march, children sleeping top to toe in crowded beds, scrimping and saving is everywhere. But we also find delight in one another’s company, human warmth despite the cold.

Many of the quilt-makers were people with dementia. We noticed the beneficial effect that group stitching had, joining people together in an act of making that had rewards (touch, colour, companionship, creativity) and an ambitious goal. Crucially, these richly associative pieces of heritage let people with dementia — people who’re usually excluded from history-making — have their say.