Blanket Queen coming to Upper Hutt’s Expressions
Upper Hutt based textile artist Katherine Morrison, aka Blanket Queen, has set up camp at Expressions Whirinaki with her hand made and painstakingly embroidered tents all made from up-cycled woollen blankets.
Her exhibition called Camp is based on the imaginary game of choosing companions (dead or alive) you would like to invite to a dinner party.
Inspired by the game she has created personalised tent settings for each of her guests, while pondering the question of what might happen if eight strong personalities got together on a camping trip.
Each of her guests also have a garment reflecting their strong personality with Princess Anne donning a horse and hound riding jacket recycled from 1950 curtains, with her tent embroidered with the Queen’s emblems whilst Tama Iti has the Ureweras sewn along the side of his tent.
Morrison comments that ‘‘the ethics and pragmatism associated with the history of quilt making appealed to me, and so did the sense of identity of the object inherent in NZ blankets that once graced the nation’s beds. Using blankets with their stains, tears and holes still apparent is a way of acknowledging the story of their human involvement, and the visibly obvious repairing of signs of deterioration is a metaphor for me of care and preservation.’’
Morrison has been working with textiles for over 30 years.