SMALL UTOPIAS (2022-ongoing)
A quilt is a collaborative environment – a small, utopic composition of color, texture, shape, and pattern. Created from and by many small parts, quilts are playful and purposeful comings-together that reroute waste and encourage cooperation. A batch of fermented vegetables is similarly unifying: a precise environment where the strengths of each of its components are encouraged. In the aquatic, anaerobic utopia of a fermentation vessel, plants, minerals, bacterias, and yeasts collaborate to transform simple ingredients into complex, flavorful, probiotic-rich, naturally-preserved foods.
Both quilting and fermentation are acts of resourcefulness and remembering, building small utopias that 1) elongate resistance and promote longevity 2) reduce waste by maximizing available resources and 3) cultivate environments beneficial to collaboration.
In 2022, a selection of fifty quilts from the Small Utopias series were distributed in Art-o-mat machines across the US.
