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This quilt tries to capture the mood Robinson Crusoe was in after he was able to make the inhospitable island his home.
Crusoe no longer viewed himself as a passive victim but built a residence on the island and provided himself with good food.
Thus for him island life - for a certain period of time- was no longer only a disastrous situation he had to suffer through, but more and more a source of enjoyment and pleasure.
(photograph by Arndt Laude, Hamburg, www.alaude.de )
Robinson Crusoe had not yet discovered the famous single footprint in the sand, Friday was still to arrive in his world. So such a footprint is not to be found on my quilt.
I tried to capture his mood of joyful solitary life on the tropical island, the fascination of discovering new exotic fruit, animals, landscapes.
The words I printed on small wooden pieces read:
"I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition." and
"...This gave me sometimes such secret comforts that I cannot express them."
(quotations from the novel)
The small green sack cloth bags at the bottom of my quilt are an invitation to collect some exotic things and keep them there: maybe a mussel or a feather or a pebble which is found on a lonely path in our world.
