Blanket Stories: Textile Society, R.R. Stewart, Ancient One

A site-specific installation for the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan

What is a blanket story?

Blankets are everyday objects. We take them for granted, yet as we use them, they quietly record our histories: a lumpy shape, a worn binding, mended patches. Every blanket holds a story.

In the secondhand and thrift-store blankets I use in much of my work, I can only guess at the story. But when I can work with contributed blankets, I ask each contributor to record the blanket’s story (or the contributor’s story as it relates to the blanket) on a tag. These stories remain with the blankets in their installations, and are also transcribed and collected, so that others can share them.

Blanket and story from Kenya, contributed to Blanket Stories: Seven Generations, Adawe, Hearth at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Sometimes, people want to contribute but don’t want to give up a beloved blanket. That’s fine, too. The story is the most important thing. You’re welcome to send a proxy blanket—one without a story, or without one related to you—along with your story.