Crip Quilt, (2023) is a large-scale, patchwork, textile quilt translating the individual and collective experience of disability. With contributions from National Disability Art Collection and Archive, three new collated oral histories with disabled artists of colour and the artist’s own lived experience; each square in the patchwork relays a snapshot of a disabled artist’s life. While making the quilt, Jamila found that stitching aids symptoms of her disability, and her embroidered reflections took on a diaristic, confessional tone. Made on crip time, across 15 months, predominantly from the artist's sick bed, the process became therapeutic in nature.

The materiality of the quilt is weighted to reflect the use of weighted blankets to manage anxiety disorders and alleviate flare-ups and burnouts for neurodivergent people. The quilt will be accompanied by creative access adjustments of a soundscape, which is part audio description and part audio guide, and a moving image work for remote viewing.

Commissioned through University Art London's 20/20 project in response to National Disability Art Collection and Archive. 

Fabrication support by Divya Obson

Sound design by Felix Taylor 

Photography and filming of quilt by Katarzyna Perlak

Assistant filming of oral histories by Lara Laeverenz

Access support by Sophie Chapman

With additional oral histories collated from Elora Kadir, Jameisha Prescod and Djofray Makumbu

With support from Studio Voltaire and Somerset House