Arpillera Americanx * Cunt Quilt (Power)

Arpillera Americanx * Cunt Quilt (Power) installation view from Beyond the Bedcovers exhibition at AIR Gallery NYC October 12, 2017. The arpillera was created at a Stitch n Bitch Arpillera salon by intersectional feminists at Bronx Museum honoring the 50th anniversary of the exonerated Black Panther party members who were wrongfully charged after the bombing of a nearby Bronx police station. The Arpillera was born on protester's backs during the BLM Racial Justice March across the Brooklyn Bridge where activists kneeled (Colin Kaepernick solidarity) in front of NYC City Hall to honor victims of police brutality.

Beyond the Bedcovers
10/12 - 11/12/2017
Curated by Laura Petrovich-Cheney
AIR gallery 155 Plymouth Street Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://www.airgallery.org/exhibitions/beyondthebedcovers

Public Programs
October 21, 2-6pm: Stitch n Bitch
Coralina Rodriguez Meyer

November 4, 4-6pm: The Last One
Documentary tracing the history and growth
of the The AIDS Memorial Quilt.

featuring Rachel Farmer, Kim Fox, Ariel Jackson, Luke Haynes, Coralina Rodriguez Meyer, Faith Ringgold, Jessica Skultety and images from the 1987 AIDS quilt exhibit in Washington, DC.

October 12 – November 12, 2017 Opening Reception: Friday, October 13, 6-8 pm Public Programs October 21, 2017, 2-6pm Stitch and Bitch Coralina Rodriguez Meyer Novembre 4, 2017, 4-6pm The Last One Documentary tracing the history and growth of the The AIDS Memorial Quilt. Beyond the Bed Covers A.I.R. A.I.R. GALLERY | 155 Plymouth St. | Brooklyn, NY 11201 | airgallery.org | [email protected] | (212) 255 6651 | Wed – Sun 12-6pm The gallery is wheelchair accessible.

Beyond the Bed Covers, examines how quilts and quilting have evolved beyond their cozy functionality, to be an expressive art form constructed of a variety of materials practiced by all gender forms. Included in this exhibition are artists whose quilts push the boundaries of materiality, personal expression and political statements. The American quilt is typically a three-layered stitched textile, combined by the process of sewing those layers together. Quilts have long been considered utilitarian objects made to provide warmth.

Before sophisticated heating systems they were even Faith Ringgold, Bitter Nest #3: Lover’s in Paris, 1998 Featuring Rachel Farmer, Kim Fox, Ariel Jackson, Luke Haynes, Laura Petrovich-Cheney, Coralina Rodriguez Meyer, Faith Ringgold, Jessica Skultety and images from the 1987 AIDS quilt exhibit in Washington, DC. Curated by Laura Petrovich-Cheney used to cover doors and windows that were not sealed well enough to keep out the elements. Over time, quilts have transcended their function beyond bed covers. Quilts are points of expression and cultural identity for the maker, both art and cra. The process of cutting and piecing together bits and pieces is part of the quilt narrative. Simultaneously the narrative of the quilt becomes a story about the time period in which it was made, the people who made it, and the prevailing zeitgeist.
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ABOUT
Arpillera Americanx Cunt Quilt is a protest art collaboration between intersectional feminist activists, progressive organizations
and the artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer. After the 2016 US election, the artist issued a National Underwear Audit
collecting worn-out women’s underwear to sew into arpilleras called Cunt Quilts at quarterly Stitch n Bitch
workshops. Panties were donated through the US Postal Service and sewn by feminist quilters, onto
stained Queen-sized bed sheets. The quilts are born on protester’s backs to demonstrate an
intersectional feminist movement. Abolitionist Stitch n Bitches feature activist leaders in conversation with
feminist craftspeople to create protest flags with critical, democratically sourced images to represent a diverse
movement. The project is a performance of citizenship in three acts: the Underwear Audit accounts for
our bodies, Stitch n Bitch builds solidarity, and the protests hold our governing bodies accountable.
Responding to social justice and public health issues, such as LGBTQIA+ visibility, climate impact, the
wage gap$, racial justice and more; the Cunt Quilt will continue until there is a WOMAN IN THE
WHITEHOUSE. Anticipating the end of the project or perhaps a turning point, the exhibition will serve as
an archive and GPS for feminine Latinx sovereignty and solidarity building.

https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/coralina-rodriguez-meyer/artwork/arpillera-americanx-cunt-quilt-inaugural?collection=arpilleras-americanxs
UNDERWEAR AUDIT
After the 2016 US presidential election artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer issued a National Underwear Audit to request worn out women's underwear to be mailed through the US Postal Service: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled drawers, yearning to breathe free! No matter the condition- they’ll be a revelation of the shameful, the sanitized, the washed-up, the worn, the probed, the holy, the scarlet, the loosened, the exonerated, the secret, and the secreted."

PRESS
https://hyperallergic.com/351908/an-artist-seeks-womens-used-underwear-for-sewing-into-quilts/

ARPILLERA STITCH N BITCH SALON
Inaugural Stitch n Bitch at City of Today for Feminine Urbanism studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn January 2017
The Old Glory Underwear Audit lead to an Inaugural Stitch n Bitch at the City of Today for Feminine Urbanism studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. A gathering of ladies from different intersectional feminist backgrounds began pinning discarded drawers onto a used bedsheet the evening of January 18, 2017. Late Friday night I finished stitching the sullied skivvies and shoved the Inaugural Cunt Quilt into a carry-on suitcase, headed for the nation’s capital to protest the inauguration of president #45. The Cunt Quilt is the official flag for the City of Today for Feminine Urbanism and will be flown at the inaugural Women’s March in January 2017. The Cunt Quilt project, consisting of the Old Glory Underwear Audit, Stitch n Bitch and Cunt Congress will continue quarterly until there is a woman in the WhiteHouse.

CUNT CONGRESS PROTEST
Arpillera Americanx * Cunt Quilt (Inaugural) was carried by 4 feminists during a Performance of Citizenship at the Women’s March on Washington (Cunt Congress) to protest the US presidential inauguration on January 21, 2017. Bearing the arpillera on their backs for 8 hours without food, water or bathroom, the protesters were joined by over a million feminists marching along Independence Avenue across the Washington Mall. Over 100 pairs of worn out women’s underwear dangled from the stained Queen size bedsheets as onlookers in pretty pink "Pussy hats" laughed, cried or were disgusted by the abject underwear composed in a halo pattern around a carnal interpretation of Betsy Ross' problematic American History. Groups of nearby women shouted “Hands Off Our Cuntry” and “We want a leader, not a dirty Tweeter!”, as the Cunt Quilt Arpillera group shouted “Mujeres, Unidas, Jamas Seran Vencidas!”. After performances by musicians, comedians and civic leaders were beheld, the protesters issued the National Underwear Audit Call: “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled drawers, yearning to breathe free! The Underwear Audit, Stitch n Bitch, Cunt Quilt and Cunt Congresses will continue until there is a Woman in the Whitehouse!"

HISTORY
Arpilleras Desaparecidos The Arpilleras Desaparecidos quilts emerged during Pinochet’s regime thousands of indigenous Chileans “disappeared”- including press and photographers who attempted to call out the military dictatorship. Mourning mothers, daughters and abuelas who survived the genocide, collaborated in arpillera therapy workshops to create 3D quilts made from their missing loved one’s clothing. Depicting colorful pastures and harmonious urban scenes, the figures upon closer inspection-
are being tortured and murdered. The subversive arpilleras which were sold at artesania markets and in public squares to fund the resistance, disseminated information as proof of political violence. The powerful Arpillera tradition spread through the Andes to other cultures including the artist’s Colombian & Peruvian indigenous, urban art practices. Overlooked by activist craft, modern art, the Latin American canon and feminist art; this marginalized protest practice continues an arc of creative justice bent in the US by more widely celebrated femme quilt movements such as Gee's Bend, the underground railroad quilts and the AIDS quilt. Drawing from this social justice craft tradition, Cunt Quilt Arpilleras Americanxs mends our indigenous, intersectional history with abject devotion.