BABEL
Robin Schwalb
New York, New York
1990
Photo silk-screened, stenciled, painted and commercially available cottons. Machine pieced, hand appliquéd. Hand quilted by Karen Berkenfeld, Margit Echols, Susan Ball Faeder, Katherine Knauer, Leslie Levison, Diane Rode Schneck, and Robin Schwalb.
72 x 90 inches (h x w)

Robin Schwalb comments: "The Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel explains that the proliferation of languages is a result of a sort of divine pre-emptive strike against an uppity mankind. In this quilt, a modern skyscraper undergoing demolition stands in for the biblical Tower. Flanked by a cityscape in the midst of catastrophic upheaval, it is surrounded as well by a wealth of symbols from more than 20 different scripts. These all serve as a perfect visual counterpart to a quote from Bruce Chatwin’s wonderful book The Songlines, wherein he asserted that the divine gift of 'language...has a rebellious and wayward vitality compared to which the foundations of the Pyramid are as dust.' Completing the composition, asymmetric log cabin blocks radiate out from the central image, adding their rhythmic visual energy."

$10,000

Contact Robert Shaw for more information or to purchase

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