Anarchist artist CJ Reay is going viral with his Anarchist Prayer Quilts, a series of 14 textile works that adapt his slogan-forward graphic poster style to felt and applique. The quilts carry call-to-arms messages such as “May every data centre crumble to dust!” and “Tyrants of today will be the compost of tomorrow!”
A summer of sewing
Reay quilted so intensely over the summer that he now needs glasses. “After four months of doing it, I found myself getting really bad headaches towards the end, so I had an eye test,” he says. “I totally ruined my summer!”
The quilts follow two recent textile-based commissions. Last year, Reay worked with Bradford’s 1 in 12 anarchist social club to make banners celebrating its ethos, and with Barnsley Civic on a project inspired by banners made by striking miners’ wives. He learned about Welsh quilts, Amish quilts and the radical sewing histories detailed in Jess Bailey’s Many Hands Make a Quilt.
Influences and inspiration
Reay cites punk band Crass’s artist Gee Vaucher and Barbara Kruger as influences. “Kruger often asks questions and I love that,” he says. “It makes you think about the nature of authority and conformity. So I try to do that, and I never try to do anything overtly negative. It’s about trying to celebrate rather than denigrate.”
One long quilt declares: “May every data centre crumble to dust / May the machines of death turn to ruin & rust / May the flowers bloom & concrete split / May the last tech lord choke on his own bullshit.” Reay calls them prayer quilts “because art is a representation of a person’s soul in some ways. When I see AI art it feels like a total contradiction of what it is to be human and to make art. This is literally me with sore fingers, sewing in my garage.”
From posters to quilts
Reay, 38, grew up near Carlisle in the town where the BNP had its HQ. He went to Newcastle to study politics and sociology, and at the city’s radical Star and Shadow arts space he learned the craft of DIY culture. He and friends started Newcastle Nerd Punks, distributing comics, zines and alternative listings guides.
Black Lodge Press was born, named in tribute to Twin Peaks and David Lynch. Today Reay has 145,000 Instagram followers and his work appears in DIY spaces from Falmouth to Glasgow, but he only opens his web store a handful of times a year. “I have funny feelings about contributing to that culture of consumption that is so rampant,” he says. “I don’t want to be like, ‘Here’s another slogan, let’s pop it on a T-shirt.’ That seems a bit vacuous.”
New directions
The quilts have inspired Reay’s first book, due in January. At last year’s Glastonbury, he was invited to install a real-life anarchist gardeners’ club. The Anarchist Prayer Quilts are at Memory Dance, Sheffield, 5-28 November, then Base Gallery, Lincoln, 4-31 December.
