A former urban planner, Kathryn Clark is very aware of the foreclosure crisis that is happening in the United States right now. Her series, Foreclosure Quilts pairs quilts with this crisis, and interestingly ties home ownership with the handed down history of quilts. She writes:
It was important to me to present the whole story in a way that would captivate people’s attention and make a memorable statement. Making map quilts seemed an ironic solution. Quilts act as a functional memory, an historical record of difficult times. It is during times of hardship that people have traditionally made quilts, often resorting to scraps of cloth when so poor they could not afford to waste a single thread of fabric.
The neighborhoods shown are not an anomaly; they are a recurring pattern seen from coast to coast, urban to suburban neighborhoods across the US. The problem has not been solved, it is still occurring, just changing shape, affecting more of us.
All images via her website.
