In September 1990, while taking part in an artist exchange program in China, Nancy Crow saw two trucks go by, laden with boys and young men bound in heavy ropes. As a deterrent to others, the youths were being driven around the city of Xian before being executed for petty crimes. Crow responded to this horrifying incident by creating a series of ten memorial quilts titled Chinese Souls. The circles and colors represent the more than sixty teenage boys and their souls; the bull's-eye hand-embroidery and hand-quilting symbolize the ropes that bound their spirits as well as their bodies.
Crow's originality and strong sense of color and design have resulted in a body of work that is as innovative as it is visually compelling. The circular motifs and rich gradation of tints were produced by tie-dyeing. The multihued embroidery threads are worked in spirals, which add movement and radiate energy from within the circles. Chinese Souls #2, with its striking combinations of deep, saturated colors, boldly graphic patterns, and forceful political and social message, is a superb example of the emotional texture of Crow's work.
[This] series of quilts was very, very emotional for me and it had a reason for being.
-Nancy Crow, 2002
