Lawrence University
Student Art in the Library

Artist: Caroline Bowles
Title: Triple Irish Chain, Tin, Steel, Aluminum
Date: January 2002

Artist's Statement:
Quilting has long been an American tradition. The Triple Irish Chain is a popular pattern developed by women in the mid-19th century., who pieced from worn and discarded clothing beautiful and practical works of art. This piece celebrates women's artistry, resourcefulness, and ingenuity not only in the pattern employed, but through the use of the metallurgical analog to used clothing - recycled cookie tins.

On another level, this piece addresses numerous tensions, between the masculine and the feminine, the handmade and the manufactured, the new and the old, and between the materials from which the piece is constructed and the materials from which one expects a quilt to be made.

Further, the piece invites the viewer to construct a narrative explaining how the quilt came to rest on the chair. It challenges the viewer to imagine how it might feel to sit under the quilt. Would it feel comforting, like the quilt your grandmother made? Or protective? Or oppressive? How does the fact that the quilt is made of metal contradict, reinforce, or transform one's understanding of the function of a quilt?