Anna Von Mertens

Von Mertens makes hand-stitched quilts that comment on events from American history and current politics. She describes Black and White as

a diptych that examines the warped perspective of seeing things only in black and white terms. Politicians and the media use this simplified way of presenting information, where the only alternatives are good or evil, for or against, right or wrong. It is a seductive way of thinking because it offers easy answers, but losing sight of the true complexity of a situation has quite dangerous consequences... The black sculpture depicts the physical energy dispersion pattern of a nuclear explosion stitched in white thread. The white sculpture depicts the same drawing in black thread, but the drawing has been rotated in AutoCAD and is seen from an aerial view so that it becomes abstracted... By placing the work on the bed and through the intimacy of the hand-stitching, I hope we can see these larger issues differently through the lens of the familiar.

(Undated artist’s statement in Museum curatorial files.)