Security Blanket

For our recent design brief set by the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, myself and a fellow student decided to collaborate and create a response to this brief as a pair.

We both have a vested interest in print based design and textiles, therefore we wanted to create something that would combine these two areas of design.

We were also both heavily influenced by the works of Al Johnson and War Boutique when we viewed the Herbert Gallery's "Caught in the Crossfire" exhibition, and so we agreed to make our response have similar messages/themes that these particular artists have explored.

In the end we decided to create a patchwork blanket. We made individual squares that each have their own war related theme designed onto them. We used a range of media including, paint, ink, sewing, collage and screen printing to create 12 30cm x 30cm squares. Once we had completed all of the squares we sewed them together to create our final piece.

Titling the outcome "Security Blanket" contradicted with the themes and images which were used on the patchwork, and made the viewer question its purpose/meaning. We felt this juxtaposition of harsh/evil images with the idea that a blanket offers comfort to a child to be very disturbing, which we hoped would therefore create an emotional response to our work.