Pieced quilt c. 1890

Here is an audio guide entry about Florence Kutz's Pieced Quilt, held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The first impression is a field of tessellating hexagons, teeming with variation yet contained within a square bordered by bands of deep blue and thin red. The cumulative effect is a busy, almost chaotic surface, that vibrates with the tension between order and randomness. Consider the semiotic implications of the quilt. Each hexagonal patch, a signifier of unity, is itself composed of diverse fabrics and patterns, suggesting a microcosm of society. But the individual patches never achieve complete uniformity. The slight misalignments and irregularities challenge the notion of a seamless, homogenous whole. It is in these imperfections that the quilt finds its voice, disrupting any singular, fixed meaning. In closing, the quilt's overall structure destabilizes the traditional, fixed meaning of the form. The vibrant surface suggests that meaning is always in flux, shaped by the viewer's encounter.