I made quilts to match ceramic tiles

Funding for this project provided by Arts Nova Scotia

Lookalike is a collaborative series of handmade quilts and ceramic tile pieces which will be made to be direct visual copies of each other.

Quilts by me. Ceramic tiles made by Gillian Maradyn-Jowsey.

Upon realizing that many traditional, cross-cultural patterns for quilts and ceramic tiles were similar, we knew we wanted to explore this concept and the intersections between these two mediums. As part of our research and conceptualization of this project, we dove deep into the interdisciplinary world of patterns and found mountains of inspiration. In addition to this aesthetic research, the project aims to explore what the “telephone game” or “mirror game” look like when used as a strategy in an artistic collaboration in the age of COVID-19. What dialogue is created between two nearly identical works made in separate locations? How can we use mimicry as a tool to fool or temporarily suspend belief in our audience? What does enthusiastic consenting plagiarism signify in a culture obsessed with ego-driven individuality and ownership? This series will investigate the visual venn diagram between these two mediums, as well as these conceptual considerations and questions.