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Writer's pictureAllison James

Fire and Floods


This quilt continues to explore the theme of climate change by depicting the devastating effects of the rise in greenhouse gases on the earth’s climate. There are multiple examples, globally of increases in warming oceans, hurricanes, wild fires and floods and I wanted to bring these issues to the forefront.

 

Initially, I thought that the quilts in my series would read STOP, STOP , START. The last quilt will offer hope – the planting of trees and increasing biodiversity through reforestation and rewilding. However, my first attempt to portray a flood ( with STOP in the background) did not work. While I loved the colours gained by overlaying different coloured tulles, the end result was more a depiction of an ocean, rather than a devastating flood , and the houses I appliqued on top didn’t really look  as if they had been swamped by water!





 

I decided then to approach the topic rather differently and to think of the world as a whole – on the one hand, the devastation caused by wild fires and, on the other,  that caused by flooding and sea level rises. Thinking about this duality enabled me to move away from a representational style and to approach the topic in a more abstract way.

 

I first made the “floods” as a collaged strip which I then overlaid and appliqued on top of the earth. The flames of the “fires” were then also appliqued on top.  Thinking about the changes in the earth’s atmosphere that are contributing to climate change led me to envisage a band of “air” above the earth, full of greenhouse gases, that are gradually choking the earth.  While we think of carbon dioxide and methane as the main gases there are many others too and so I have embroidered the chemical symbols of each of these in the atmospheric band I have created. My hope is that this quilt will help raise awareness and start more conversations about climate change.


FIRE AND FLOODS

(24.5" X 32.5") 

My series of 3 quits will now read: STOP FIRES and FLOODS, PLANT TREES.



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