Artist's Statement on the Hiroshima Series

While visiting Hiroshima in 1989 I knew I wanted to make an art quilt to express my feelings about the bomb dropped on August 6, 1945.  For about three years I read many books about the bombing from both the Japanese and American points of view.  I finally decided that I could not say anything new or meaningful about this event.  I felt unworthy.

Then one day while I was washing dishes at my kitchen sink I was still thinking about a Hiroshima quilt.  The thought came to me that I could make an art quilt that would not be recognized as being about the atomic bomb.  Months later I painted an image of the moon in a murky night sky.  I was not thinking of Hiroshima at all.  I constructed the quilt top and showed it to my daughter.  She thought it was too dark and dull.  I boldly cut it apart, added slivers of bright colors, and sewed it together with angles that made it look unstable. Then I realized it could be the smoke, fires, and destruction of that first terrible night in Hiroshima.  A few days later when I showed the unfinished quilt to a group of people, someone saw the shadow of a girl.

Now most of the Hiroshima Series quilts can be seen on two levels.  At first glance they are colorful and interesting.  Viewed from a different perspective, they are about the bomb.  The quilt, "The Big Flash" is an example.  I wanted to show the brightness with the destruction.  While I was painting with bright colors of dye, an elderly friend watched me.  She did not know that this was about the bomb.  She remarked that it was the prettiest thing I had ever painted. I did not tell her what I was painting.

The Hiroshima Series has been emotionally intense to make.  Many times I resolved to take a break from the serious quilts.  I painted whatever I liked and pieced abstractions.  Again and again I saw that what I was making or had already made was related to the Hiroshima quilts.  I never had a plan to make a series of quilts. Poems by Japanese survivors also gave me new insight or inspiration.

My Indiana grandmothers made quilts to keep people warm.  Although I have made bed quilts as they did, I prefer to express myself differently.  For years I have made humorous art quilts about stages of my life or other whimsical topics.  I have made quilts to keep people thinking too.  My quilts are about nature and the environment, gun violence, suicide, patriotism, and now the end of World War II.  One visit to Hiroshima eleven years ago has stimulated a whole series of quilts on the subject of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There is no particular political intent in my quilts.  I was born during World War II but it was never a major topic in my school studies.  I knew the war began with Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and knew the war ended after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  After reading on these subjects I know they caused great human suffering.  I don’t know what I would have decided if I had been in President Truman’s place.  I just know it must never happen again anywhere.

Barbara Moll, August 2000

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