Briana Bergeron

This is a quilt made of the SCOBY’s from kombucha, grown by my friends and family. SCOBY’s are Symbiotic Colonies of Bacteria and Yeast which consistently grow and regenerate during the kombucha making process, and can be dehydrated into a leather like material. They product is often shared between friends and family, much like sourdough starters or Amish Friendship bread.

 

At face value, a quilt is a relic of a communal, collectivist, female, and often religious history. Quilting was, at one point, a cultural practice for me and my community, as I was raised Mennonite. Unfortunately, due to convenience culture and modern tech, the practice of quilting is dying out in my community. This piece is an attempt to merge artistic social practice with the naturally social act of cooking and eating, as well as to create and preserve skills. The texture and transparency of this material creates a sensation and understanding of the dynamics between past and present, sci-fi and ancient artifact, appreciation for the earth and innovation, and lost tradition and new material.

 

My mom was a quilter when I was a child. She has lost this skill due to the progression of her neurological degenerative condition, called Huntington’s Disease. Quilting is something I wish she could teach me, but because she is no longer able, I am forced to adapt. Luckily, kombucha SCOBY accommodates my lack of true sewing skills. when overlapped while drying it sticks together, so there is no need for sewing. As a material, the SCOBY is relevant to her disease in that it is generational, just like Huntington’s is. As her daughter, this is something I have a 50/50 chance of inheriting from her. It’s hard to watch someone lose all of their hobbies and skills, and sense of self. To cope with this trauma, I outsourced my care to a group of women I knew through my neighborhood and church community. A lot of these women were self-proclaimed granola girls, and were into kombucha way before it hit the shelves of  Whole Foods. Eating together was a common occurrence with these women. This piece is a homage to them, and the pieces of the quilt will be shaped as hexagons, like honeycomb, to represent hive mentality and collectivity, as well as interconnectedness.

  

In light of COVID-19, I find this message especially significant, as many of us feel increasingly out of touch with other people, as social isolation becomes more and more necessary. This quilt is a representation of the numerous people in our lives, who cannot hold or enfold us right now, but are still in our lives. The lack of physical contact and connection we are all experiencing right now, is an unnatural withdrawal. As you look at the size of this quilt, bear in mind that we have collectively come to understand personal space as a six foot radius. You are allowed to look but not touch — this is our life now. And yet, there is in an intimacy to it in that it looks a bit like skin and its pieces were made in our private spaces. When you put them together, it becomes a public space.It also is somewhat contentiously made of “germy” things, something which many of us have learned to fear in the last few months.

 

Even now, there is hope for regeneration and new growth.