Does a blanket have the capacity to absorb and protect vulnerability? Can the universality of a blanket manifest our collective responsibility to one another? When The World Was Tired will be twenty-five m2 blanket space created with one metre by one metre square blankets patched together. The architecture of the piece will change by the people who interact with it. We are living in a world facing multiple humanitarian crises further compounded with environmental crises, all of which are the result of a globalised kleptocracy that has its roots in a racialized colonialist history. There are too many instances where basic human needs are not being met and the upward mobility of many more are hampered by the structural inequities of our systems. With such divergent expressions within the world, how can we move forward as a “community of shared destiny”? Each blanket will have disfigured imagery through fabric manipulation and printing techniques applied to the blankets surface. The disrupted state of the surface design blurs the lines of the nurturing capacities of the fabric and the diverse history tied to this object, revealing all the moments people may seek comfort.

When The World Was Tired is an experimental response to collectively navigate our contemporary landscape by emotionally and physically immersing participants in tolerance, empathy, recognition of suffering and willingness for others. My intention for this project is to create an active sculpture where intimacy is interrupted through the transformation of the domestic ritual of wrapping oneself in a blanket into a vast public space. Reimagining the context of the blanket beyond its intended use discloses details of the joys and pains of human experience and acknowledges humanity’s fragility. This active public sculpture calls for a moment to recognize the collective responsibility for the people under our blanket.