Rhonda Denney - Language Building Blocks 12” x 12” Art Quilt 2024

Language Building Blocks 12” x 12” Art Quilt 2024

Created as part of my SAQA KS/MO/OK Regional Exhibition in 2024, inspired by the living-language-land project (at living-language-land.org). That project, devised by a small group based out of the UK, involved people in other countries around the world. The result was a set of 26 words from endangered and minority languages, contributed by members of indigenous communities. 

Their goal was to reveal different ways of relating to land and nature, and enlarge the lexicon we can all draw from in reflecting on those relationships. The project was related to COP26 (a series of annual global climate negotiations under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)), with a hope of giving a global audience fresh inspiration for our environmental crisis.

We were asked to select a word and create one or more art quilts inspired by that word, based on our own research, experiences and creative voice. Works could be a combination of 12” and/or 24”, either 2D or 3D.
This art quilt, Language Building Blocks. Inspired by the word: Aibidil: alphabet. Word Origin: Gaelic, Western Scotland. Word Contributor: Malcolm Maclean.

Our understanding of the world is shaped by the language we use to describe it. There are many languages, each represented by sounds and symbols. In English, words are created from letters. The alphabet characters are critical building blocks for our modern written english language. I remember the hours spent learning to write the characters during my early schooling. From that beginning, the magic of reading and writing and communication unfolded to me.

Commercial fabric, polyester batting, cotton/poly & monofilament thread, pigments, satin cording. I used my Pigment Patchwork techniques to create this work.