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If the thought of quilts makes you want toyawn and dive underneath one – then thinkagain. Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry arejust two of the contemporary artists whosequilts go on show this weekend at the V&A,along with other quilts dating from 1700.And for aspiring quilt-makers, there will bea series of workshops at the exhibition.

"Quilts stimulate memories of warmth, security and home, yettheir layers can also conceal hidden histories and untold stories,"says the curator, Sue Prichard. "Quilts 1700-2010 showcases over300 years of British quilt-making; from the sumptuous silk velvetpatchwork quilts created for affluent bedrooms in the 18th century,to the simplest of hexagon coverlets made by Girl Guides internedin Changi Prison."

The pièce de résistance is Emin's installation To Meet My Past(2002), a brass bed and sprung mattress with stitched blankets,curtains and a duvet.

The quilt itself is inscribed with "TO MEET MY PAST", and thecushion has the appliquéd text "I CRY IN A WORLD OF SLEEP".This hotbed of personal intrigue is complete with bodily stains,embroidered in red thread across the cotton sheets.

As the exhibition prepares to open its doors, we asked Emin andPerry, as well as Natasha Kerr, a photographic textile artist to thestars who has done commissions for Dawn French, Gary Kempand others, and the multi-media artist, Susan Stockwell, whose

Arts & Ents > Art > Features

Stitches in time: Quilt-making as contemporaryartQuilt-making is a serious pursuit for big-name contemporary artists– and as four of them explain, it's no soft option.

BY CHARLOTTE CRIPPS MONDAY 15 MARCH 2010

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and others, and the multi-media artist, Susan Stockwell, whosedrawings and collages of giant maps recently took over two roomsof the V&A, to describe what inspired them.

Quilts 1700-2010, V&A Museum, London SW7 (Vam.ac.uk) 20March to 4 July

Natasha Kerr: 'At the End of the Day'

"At the End of the Day tells a story. It depicts my greatgrandmother and my grandfather looking exhausted in the gardenafter a hard day's work. The family had recently moved to theWirral from London. Otto, as he was Viennese and German-speaking, had been interned, but was then released to resume hislife as a medic.

This photograph was taken in one of several houses that thefamily rented during the war, houses that British families hadevacuated. It struck me how poignant this image is: the landscapeis barren, nothing is growing in the garden, the people areexhausted. The garden, devoid of vegetation, accentuated the factthat this was not home and no roots had been established.

On creating the surround I was following the angles in thephotograph. When I had finished I was amazed to see that whatwas before me resembled a Union flag. It was, however, not aUnion flag or a flag from any nation; it looked familiar, but wasn'tquite right. I thought that given the context of the photograph itwas quite fitting and called it a 'displacement flag'."

Grayson Perry: 'Right to Life'

"We are born and we die and we make love under a quilt. Right toLife is only the second ever quilt I've made, and a commentary onthe American abortion debate of the 1990s. Years later, I still likethis quilt, apart from the dazzling turquoise colour of the border.Now I'm much more careful about how I use colour, particularlywith fabric things.

At the time I was interested in the whole quilt phenomenon. Quiltculture is very popular in America, particularly in the Bible Beltstates, as a traditional down- home pastime for the good women.

It is a category of traditional object that also looks like a painting,so it translates very well into the art gallery context, in the sameway as the pottery does. It is a real object; you could sleep under itif you wanted to, in the same way that you could put flowers in myvase.

At the time the debate around abortion was starting to gathermomentum, people were getting killed because they wereabortionists. It had become this trigger issue for the wholepolitical scene around the Christian right. I was interested inmaking an object that dealt with that issue, at the same time asmaking a traditional object.

I made my first quilt, Tree of Death, in 1997, which was aboutAIDS. Now I have access to digital tapestry technology, and as Istill get the same thrill out of making a tapestry I'm more likely touse that in the future."

Tracey Emin: 'To Meet My Past'

"By 1993 I had done a fair bit of sewing. Jay Jopling offered me anexhibition at White Cube, but I didn't really know what I wasgoing to do. Nor did Jay. In fact, at the time of him offering me theshow, he didn't even know I had been to art school; he just likedmy ideas and writing. I then raided my clothes cupboard.Anything that had sentimental value that I didn't wear anymorewas cut up and became my basis for patches.

And so it began, my first quilt. I have never called them quilts. Ihave always called them blankets. They were most definitelyblankets at the beginning because they were made with theintention of going on a bed. I sold the first blanket, HotelInternational (1993), in 1994 in New York. It was displayed on mybed at the Gramercy Park Hotel with me inside the bed. I neverdreamt that anybody would want to buy it because it was sopersonal. When it sold, I curled up in bed with it tucked around meand cried at the idea of it going away. A lot of love had gone into it,

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and on the final days of getting it completed in time for the WhiteCube show, different friends had helped me complete the patchesand sew them on.

Quilt-making has always been considered a craft. It's never beenheld up in the realms of high art. But I hope, I feel, that mypractice has managed to change some of these conceptions. I havealways treated my blanket-making more like a painting in terms ofbuilding up layers and textures.

Quilt-making involves a lot of thought and love. Just the timeinvolved in the process means many things are discussed andconsidered concerning life."

Susan Stockwell: 'A Chinese Dream'

"While working in China and Taiwan between 2006-2008, Ibecame fascinated by the incredible energy generated by the rapidrate of change. The quilt A Chinese Dream is a result of myexperiences, especially in China. I've stitched and crafted almost1000 Chinese money notes into a patterned, quilted map of theworld. Like most of my work, the piece refers to trade, ecology, thepresent economic crisis and the shifting global economy.

For me personally it's a beautiful, hand-made quilt stemming froma tradition of women recycling old clothes, passing on keepsakesand sharing in a familial process that transcends generations.Ironically, the ritual processes involved in making a quilt seem tocounter the crassness of money and consumerism. Money by itsvery nature is recycled; it's covered with the residue of manyhands, pockets and purses – what I call the Stains of Existence."

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