Eliana Grajales
Social change does not happen in the blink of an eye, it takes groups of people protesting, gigantic demonstrations, ruckus in the streets.. or a gorgeous quilt. The NAMES project spreads awareness of the HIV/AIDs virus by displaying a 1.2 million square foot quilt with names of the people who have fallen to the disease. This quilt is a somber reminder of the lives lost to HIV but manages to be absolutely breathtaking at the same time, and no, not because of its beauty, but because this project had given families and friends a way to grieve. It leaves me in awe knowing thousands upon thousands of people contributed their own stitch work for this display.
There was a couple blocks in particular that I chose to examine closer, although I wish I could see them all! I took a look at Freddy Mercury’s four blocks that were dedicated to him. Something that I admire about this project is that although Freddy Mercury is a big name in music he was honored just as everyone else was, no more, no less.
All of the sections are amazing in their own ways but I believe that the very last block added to the quilt told the best message. In the beginning of making the quilt the project had received thousands of submissions at once but in 1988 a single block was submitted. “The Last One” was a symbol representing the hope that people wouldn’t need to keep giving the project stitch-work because we’d stop losing people to this virus. Now 48’000 panels strong, the quilt is complete and the most visible representation of people with HIV/AIDs.
