Dedar x Stephen Burks Sew Gee’s Bend Heirtage Builders

Abstract

• Italian material label Dedar and designer Stephen Burks have partnered with the quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, to create 10 new items, showcased on the 2025 Venice Structure Biennale.

Italian textile purveyor Dedar has united with designer Stephen Burks and non-profit Sew Gee’s Bend Heritage Builders to create a particular assortment of quilts rooted in Alabama’s wealthy quilting custom, handed down from technology to technology.

Burks, the primary and solely African American industrial design apply to win the Nationwide Design Award in Product Design, participated in a week-long workshop with the native quiltmakers, culminating in 10 large-scale items utilizing textiles donated by Dedar. The ensuing quilts, that includes Dedar materials like Tiger Mountain and Jamu Jungle, comply with the standard buildings of the custom whereas including motion with trendy touches.

Over the twentieth century, the quilts got here to function a medium for collective authorship and resistance within the face of inequality. On the top of the Civil Rights Motion, the quilts grew to become a key supply of revenue in assist of jailed and disenfranchised activists within the American wrestle for racial fairness.

With works showcased in museums like The Met and The Whitney, the historic Gee’s Bend quilting custom has garnered a timeless enchantment that speaks to as we speak’s urge for food for daring geometry, rhythmic asymmetry, and use of repurposed supplies. The gathering’s unveiling at the US Pavilion on the 2025 Venice Structure Biennale marks the primary time up to date Gee’s Bend quilts have been made in collaboration with a world design home and introduced on the world stage on this format.

See the gallery above for a more in-depth have a look at the brand new items, in addition to pictures taken on the bottom within the Gee’s Bend group.