Rowan Haug

Artist Statement

"In the last few years, I have made almost twenty memorial quilts. Quilts made from the belongings of someone’s loved one who has passed away. Working on these quilts feels like a kind of ceremony. Concurrently, I was given a box of discarded quilt tops, mostly constructed out of what are obviously men’s work shirts. Through my recent work, I have been thinking a lot about how both clothing and quilts inherently bring to mind the body and are constructed with the human body in mind. They clothe us and cover us, keep us warm and protect and comfort us. They are flat but are made three dimensional through contact with our bodies.  They become worn with repeated touch. They show our preferences and can help define us in others’ minds. My current work seeks to investigate the connection between quilts and clothing, plane and form, and how through the domestic arts women have connected to the people and environments around them."