cotton, wool
200 x 200 cm
Instead of picturing the flowers themselves, this quilt lists the various symbolic meanings of these flowers. These meanings are found in the Victorian etiquette of gifting flowers; a way of sending out a wordless message to a loved one by picking flowers that hold a certain meaning. By doing so, the work, in a way, reverses the typical role of flowers, which are often used as a stand-in for words. By gifting them to others in situations where we don’t know what to say or write, they take over the role of language.
On the quilt they are accompanied by graphic shapes or symbols that are deliberately kept simple, so they can either be interpreted as a petal, a leaf, or a teardrop.