Trauma Blanket

ILLUSTRATING TRAUMA PATTERNS AND FORMING COPING MECHANISMS

Many of us remember the year 2016 as a year of disaster and trauma. With events such as killer clown sightings, Brexit, police shootings, Syria, Trump, record-hot temperatures, terrorist attacks, and mass shootings, it is hard to overlook 2016 as being possibly one of the worst years in history. 

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In many cultures, patterns are used as a form of storytelling. A retelling of various reoccurring events or aspects of society. With this project, I aimed to create my own pattern which embodied the story of 2016. This meant documenting all the events that went on that year including the good, the bad, and the ugly. By mapping out everything, it even came to light that the reoccurring disasters of 2016 seemed to generate a pattern of their own accord. 

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There were a total of six patterns, each pattern conveying various aspects of the year. Each individual pattern was hand drawn and transferred onto synthetic fabric via a heat press. The individual patterns were then stitched together to form a giant blanket which is free to use by those who feel traumatised by the year's events.