RETROSPECTIVE
2023
40″ x 40″
Silk, cotton, wool, metallic, sequins, photo collage, appliqué, hand and machine pieced, hand quilted, hand painted, hand pleated, tucks, prairie points
Photo Credit: Adi Talwar
The idea for this quilt came to my mind when I was looking through the postcards from my earlier exhibits. I thought how interesting it would be if I could find a way to combine in one piece all quilts from my Cityscapes series that I have worked on between 2006 and 2013. Fortunately, I still had in my possession the 2009 piece Before The Storm, which with slight modifications could become a perfect starting point as both its square shape and colors would work well with all the other quilts in this series, depending on the connecting areas chosen: it now serves as a “centerpiece” and is “framed” with the images of the other Cityscapes quilts. Thus, Before the Storm was renewed, reimagined, reconstructed and incorporated into Retrospective.
Of Aristova’s Cityscapes series art critic Ed McCormack wrote: “… Passages of hand-painting (especially of the skies) also enhance the intricate and complex hand-sewn elements in Aristova’s textile works inspired by her adopted city of New York. Here, all misty traces of nostalgia evaporate, replaced by the more immediate impact of skyscrapers and high-rises set against poetically moody skies. In Before the Storm, for example, she creates a sense of imminence and the overcast heft of pregnant cloud cover behind the dark purple and silvery gray buildings by virtue of horizontal stitching and puffy quilting effects. By contrast, the clustered buildings in After the Storm rise into a blue and purple-violet stratosphere amid vertical white stitches that suggest the last waning raindrops, which continue to fall sparsely, even as traces of reemerging sunlight gild the edges of the tallest towers. Ludmila Aristova also captures atmospheric aspects of the city in elaborately wrought fabric works, such as Winter, where its stone facades take on the crystalline translucence of an ice-sculpture; [and] Night Fell on the City, in which its nocturnal lights become a jewel-case of wonders …”
