Reflecting on the cultural history behind quilting, I acknowledged how this technique which was once used by enslaved African women as a form of exploitative labour, creative expression, and survival, had been reclaimed and adapted to create an artistic form of cultural expression and empowerment for Black people.

Through Faith Ringgold’s story quilt Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? she subverts the ‘mammy’ caricature – an obese figure of a subservient black woman, and ‘breaks [down this] negative stereotype’. (Copy of Faith Ringgold: Painter, Author, Civil Rights Activist, Women’s Rights Activist, & Educator, n.d.).

Through her use of scale, and her combination of text and imagery, Ringgold is able to make a statement piece that ‘express[es] her discontent with the lack of positive black images in contemporary art’. (Copy of Faith Ringgold: Painter, Author, Civil Rights Activist, Women’s Rights Activist, & Educator, n.d.). Admiring this technique, I began to consider using the medium of quilting to create a form of positive visibility for Black British history.