Section 3: Dreaming Other Worlds

Dreaming Other Worlds consists of 6 quilts exploring Kim F. Hall’s use of quilting as a dreamspace: Gone Fishing (1990s), The Oldest Art (2022), BaliWood (2014-2017), Mermaid Party (2012), Sea Dragon (2023), and Bajan Mermaid (2022-23).

Each of these pieces shows Hall experimenting with new techniques, materials, motifs: from hand-dyed batik to three-dimensional appliqués, to hand-embroidered sea life Water creatures are frequent protagonists in Hall’s other-worldly aesthetic. She says, “I always associate mermaids with freedom,” sometimes using the mermaid to represent herself, as in Sea Dragon (2023). Her aquatic scenes feature bright adventurous tones, suggesting that vibrant color is also a part of Hall’s liberated aesthetic.

The Oldest Art (2022), demonstrates Hall’s determination to continue quilting while facing the challenge of a major illness that impacted her memory and cognition during the isolating period of COVID lockdown. Working in a virtual community with other members of the African American Quilters of Baltimore, Hall achieves her goal of returning to straight stitching, while incorporating a collection of Aboriginal fabrics from her travels into a complex sudoku-themed pattern. In the label behind this work, she also pays tribute to the indigenous artisans who created the fabrics, continuing in her commitment to making women’s labor visible.

Bajan Mermaid (2022-23) similarly points to her reverence for the creativity of those whose humanity has been invisibilized by colonialism and slavery, the back of this featuring another batik artist’s depiction of the “chattel houses” of Barbados. In juxtaposition, the frontal image is of a brown-skinned mermaid, swimming freely through a rich aquamarine landscape featuring abundant sea life. While new to the process of drawing with wax and dye-setting the color on this fabric, Hall expertly conveys the vibrancy and warmth of the mermaid’s imagined world.