A Chinese Dream I & II, Victoria & Albert Museum London

These quilts, stitched and edged in ribbon, contain an image of a world map in their centre. A Chinese Dream I was commissioned by the V&A for the exhibition Quilts 1700 - 2010, Hidden Histories, Untold Stories, and is in their collection. A Chinese Dream II (see images) is a variation on I, with the maps edged in red blanket stitch and different money notes for some continents; it was completed in 2021 during a COVID lockdown. 

Stockwell’s beautiful yet subversive quilts use paper products to form a visual treatise on the Chinese economy. The quilts are created from one of the most transferable and anonymous paper objects within contemporary society: money. Through the careful selection of worn Chinese bank notes, Stockwell forms visually arresting pieces that are at once a fluid, scale-like surface and a political statement of the importance of China to the global trade network. Following visits to China in the 2000's, Stockwell observed how fast moving it's economy is and how this scale of growth contributed to China’s global power, particularly in the textile trade. 

It forms part of a series of quilts by Stockwell; their continuing relevance lies in their connection to a ‘make do and mend mentality’ where recycling and ecology are an inherent part of the process and practice. 

Stockwell chooses these industrial and domestic ‘commodity’ materials because, in her words, they contain ‘stains of existence’ and ‘act as ready-made signifiers’ which she can sculpt and interweave in ways that delicately reveal their obscured politics and hidden beauty. Stockwell said: "While working in China and Taiwan (2006-9), I became fascinated by the energy generated by the rapid rate of change. The quilt  'A Chinese Dream' is a result of my experiences and questions whether the Chinese are living their dream in the way that the American's lived theirs 50 years ago. I stitched and crafted almost 1000 money notes into a patterned, quilted map of the world. The piece refers to trade, ecology & geopolitics. For me personally, it’s a beautiful, handmade quilt stemming from a tradition of women recycling old clothes, passing on keepsakes and sharing in a familial process that transcends generations. Money, by its very nature, is recycled; it’s covered with the residue of many hands, pockets and purses. We seldom think about what this everyday material actually is and consider our complex relationship with it."

Exhibition: 

Quilts 1700 - 2010 Hidden Histories, Untold Stories Victoria & Albert Museum 2010

Haptic Codes at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London 31st March-30th April 2022

Collections:

A Chinese Dream I,  collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, UK 

Publications:

Quillts 1700 -2010: Hidden Histories, Untold Stories by Sue Prichard

Video:

Susan Stockwell, artist in her studio, London, V&A Films 2010

Queen's New Clothes: Video about the Artist Susan Stockwell