Photo credit: © Drunell Levinson. All rights reserved.
Accession Number: C.2007.8.28
Dimensions: 6 ft X 3 ft
Dimensions (Metric): 15.24 cm X 7.62 cm
Credit Line: Gift of Drunell Levinson and of the contributors to the September 11 Quilts Memorial Exhibition
Ulysses
Description
Quilt titled Ulysses created by Carmel Bird and made with fabric, netting, batting, and thread. This quilt is primarily cream in color. The bottom contains a maroon/red mountain or flame-shaped assemblage of fabric. Appliquéd butterflies, accented with buttons and colored netting, float up the quilt toward the blue fabric representing sky at the top of the quilt. In the center is a quote: "The dawn of New York weeps up and down the long stairways searching among the edges for spikenards of sharp anguish - Lorca."
Historical Notes
Inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt, New York City–based arts educator Drunell Levinson conceived a September 11 Quilts Memorial that would bring together the work of artists from around the world. Drawing upon her academic research into mourning customs and her expertise as a quilter and fabric artist, Levinson issued a call for quilts on a website she created for the project. She offered thematic guidelines and requested a uniform size but left the choice of material, style, and subject to each quilter. Within the first year after 9/11, she had received 94 quilts. Over the next two years, the quilts—many using the Twin Towers as a focal point—were displayed throughout the United States and in Japan.