This Land

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Artist: Mandy Pedigo

Title: This Land

Attribution: This Land, 2021, Mandy Pedigo

Year: 2021

Materials: Cotton, linen and silk.

Dimensions: 55" h x 47" w

Image Statement: The fabric of the quilt contains the pages of my Master of Fine Arts thesis printed onto fabric, cut and re-pieced. The cutting and reassembly shift the readable text into a jumble both revealing and concealing the meaning. The quilting is done in white to subtly reveal the words This Land is My Land; This Land is Your Land in repeat. My thesis explored my journey through graduate school to explore how my hidden heritage impacted the art that made and the focus on finding home and building connection with nature. I uncovered a heritage of feeling dislocated and homesick that was passed down from my great grandparents to me. In the United States, we understand on a certain level that most of us are descended from immigrants, but we don’t know what that means. My own family came from Sweden and Finland to the US. The Finns came after many years of famine, lack of work and land, and conscription into the Russian army. It wasn’t a good time back home. When they left, it was for good and there were loved ones they never heard from again. When I hear the stories and the voices of current immigrants and refugees, I can’t help but think about my own family and what was given up to fit in. The quilt form is a very powerful object that already contains notions of home, family, and comfort. This work explores home, maps, directions, hidden stories, and searches for connection to a new country.