I’m pleased to share some very exciting news about Textile Protest by Julia Triston – it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time – and you can get your own copy here.
Batsford Books reached out to me in late 2024. They’d seen a blogpost I’d written on ‘The Grenfell Memorial Quilt‘ and wondered if I could assist them on a piece they were creating about the Quilt.
The blogpost centred on my video interview with the project’s founder and ‘artivist’ Tuesday Greenidge (whose daughter escaped from the tower fire) and by kind permission of Tuesday, included several close up photos of the Quilt .
Tuesday kindly gave Batsford and myself permission to share these images in the book.
“This book is ‘a landmark exploration of how textiles have been used for political protest in the 20th and 21st centuries’. It was an intense project to research and write, and I’m very proud of the final edition, which will be published in August this year by Batsford Books. This book is timely, and it wouldn’t have been possible to illustrate without all the creative and talented artists, activists, protesters, campaigners and curators who are part of it. … Keep on doing what you all do so brilliantly – our world needs your protest and artworks.”~ Juliia Triston.
Grenfell Tower Fire
The Grenfell Memorial Quilt honours the 72 lives lost in the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
The following is courtesy of the London Museum.
On 14 June 2017, a fire spread through Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, killing 72 people. It was one of modern London’s worst disasters, and highlighted the city’s severe housing inequalities.
The Grenfell fire was started by an electrical fault in a fridge-freezer in one of the fourth-floor flats. Cladding attached to the outside of the building set alight, spreading the fire between floors.
The fire was first reported by a 999 call just before 1am. The fire reached the roof half an hour later, and by 4am, covered the entire building.
The first firefighters reached the tower five minutes after the 999 call. They rescued 65 people, while over a hundred escaped themselves. The firefighters showed extreme bravery. The call handlers battled against severe pressure.
Until 2.47am, they advised residents to “stay put” in their flats. The Grenfell Tower inquiry found that this advice should have changed an hour earlier, when it was clear that the fire had spread.
The inquiry found that firefighters were not properly prepared by their bosses for the situation they faced. There was no specific plan for evacuating Grenfell Tower. Vulnerable and disabled residents weren’t given personalised guidance beforehand.
In the 2010s, aluminium and plastic panels had been attached to the 1970s tower block. This cladding helped the fire spread.
