The Security Blanket series looks at the multi-faceted meanings of security through the medium of second-hand textiles. Eight vintage military blankets have been appliqued with antique lace and doilies and hand-stitched using functional embroidery stitches.
The first object to touch a newborn baby, the blanket offers warmth and reassurance. But the blanket continues to be an object associated with well-being and security long after infancy. We feel its reassuring presence on the bed waking up on a cold morning. We lay it over the kitchen table to create a secret fort. We spread it out on the grass for an impromptu picnic. We wrap it around the shoulders in a time of distress. The blanket offers sanctuary and refuge, safety, and security for us all.
In the political sphere, the idea of ‘common security’ has historically been linked to the ability of nations to protect themselves militarily against the threat of other nations. But since the 1980s, the idea of ‘comprehensive security’ has been developed, which expands the concept to include the subjective wellbeing of a state’s people.
We live in tumultuous times. Still coming to terms with the impact of two years of covid restrictions, a time when Canada and all the citizens of the world experienced a profound interruption to their daily lives and comprehensive interventions by the state, and now with renewed conflict in the Middle East, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the migrant crisis in Western countries and shifting global political alliances, the world is experiencing a period of tremendous instability and uncertainty. It is time in which we are all searching for security.
Security Blanket explores the notion of security. Firstly, the security of the home - represented by antique, handmade domestic textiles such as doilies and lace. And secondly, the security of the state - represented by government-issue military blankets from America, Australia Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Russia. These repurposed objects constitute a blank canvas onto which another layer of meaning can be added to their already nuanced histories. The intricate patterning created using traditional embroidery stitches integrates these two divergent representations of security on both a physical and conceptual level, producing works of visually interesting contrast that provoke the viewer to consider their own relationship to home, comfort, safety, and security.
