When I thought about which prompt to choose I came across the word Compromise. Looking at our overall theme Community it seemed a good prompt. Every community only functions when there is compromise. As every democracy only functions with compromises. It’s a matter of giving and taking. The world nowadays is a bit different from what we are used to. Anger and hatred, polarisation, a minority calling hard to impose its opinion on the majority. A lot of sending and no receiving of opinions.
As usual I am a late starter with my quilt. Time passed. January came. And so the riots at the Capitool happened. I watched it with increasing amazement. Suddenly the seed of the idea grew in the back of my mind.
The second half of January I started printing YES and NO on fabric and thought that Agree to Disagree should be a nice title for my quilt. What I meant was that you can yell your opinion to the world but it is better to talk to each other. And when you can’t find a compromise, fine, agree to disagree. Because different opinions will always be a fact.
The riots in Washington DC where something far away but that changed a few weeks later.
Usually The Netherlands is a country which has a special verb for processes that leads to all kinds of compromises, as we say ‘polderen’. If I translate the word literally it is something like ‘poldering’, named after the famous Dutch polders. It means: to seek a compromise in order to come to an agreement.
At January the 23th the Dutch government tightened the covid measures and a curfew between 9:00 pm and 4:30 am was announced. And suddenly the flame hit the pan. People (mostly young men) started rioting and looting. Shops and whole streets where destroyed and heavy police efforts were needed to restore order. The riots where in a lot of cities. And so my quilt became not only a reaction on things happening far away but nearby as well.
The shape is deliberately irregular, to depict the chaos of a demonstration and the shape of banners.
Size approximately 24″x16″
Hand dyed and printed cotton.
“Agree to disagree” is sometimes the only way to deal with deep differences. I really like your graphic depiction that shows clear differences, but a way to live with them.
I love your grungy colours and the graphic quality of this piece. The non-dialog that just consists of yes and no is well illustrated!
Sandra, you have touched here on the angst that so many of us are feeling. The world we share is definitively under duress and people are just so uncertain about which way to go. I see the riotous colour and irregular shape as demonstrating what we are all feeling and love your focus on punctuation, the flip of letters, and the change of font. So well-executed…thoughtfully developed.
Sad to hear of the rioting and looting – so NOT the way to compromise and share feelings. Thank you for reminding us that sometimes it just pays to agree to disagree – quietly.
Timely! I enjoyed reading about your thoughts behind the piece as I’m processing along with everyone else. I think you captured the idea very well in the irregular edge shape, strong angry colors, text and general energetic tumult. I hope helped you shed some anxiety!