QR Quilt

This exhibit features the story of the critical making of a quilt emblazoned with QR codes by Kelsey Dufresne and her mother, Mary. The QR codes are links to sites that reference or stir memories of the makers’ pasts as they examine the role of digital memories while creating a family heirloom.

For Kelsey Dufresne and for many, quilting is a distinctively feminist practice: it is a practice and art of labor that is centralized on constructing an artifact of comfort, rooted in the home, rooted in the family, and rooted in collaboration. As Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” explores, these quilts are active participants in Dufrense’s family and their life together, messy and falling apart at the seams, but warm and comforting. The fabric materials and artifacts have lasted and will continue, and yet our society esteems a greater prioritization of the electronic and digital. Through this project, Dufresne questions the role of memory and femininity in the digital realm.