Nickole Keith,  FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists
Monument Quilt square
8’x8’
Yarn, fabric, ribbon, marker
2015

Monument Quilt square is a 8’x8’ marker, yarn, fabric, and ribbon piece created in 2015 by Nickole Keith, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists. Nickole’s artwork for the Monument Quilt is in the collection at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). We requested her quilt for a loan, but the staff was unable to fulfill our request. Following is a description of what the quilt does look like, preceded by an artist statement about the decision: The quilt square is divided into four quadrants and has a variety of fabric squares in different colors and patterns with the background being in red. Keith’s panel [would have been] in the upper left corner and features three yarn sculptures arranged vertically on a background horizontally split into a red top section and a shiny purple bottom section with a yellow fabric heart in the center. Each yarn sculpture resembles a head with braided “hair”, one in brown, gray, and black per head represented. Yellow, orange, red, and purple ribbon fringe extend at the bottom of the purple section. To briefly mention, the other three sections had various patterns and messages. Some read: “You are loved”, “Healing Happens”, “Create, Claim Support It”, “Justice for Natives”, “Protect Native Women and Children”, “Shame on Dollar General”, etc.  

Below is the artist statement: 

Receiving the news that this piece could not be included in the exhibit has stirred a deep emotional response. It’s not simply disappointment—it feels like something sacred has been taken. This work is more than fabric and thread; it carries the weight of memory, grief, and survival. To tell the story of this exhibit without this piece means grieving its absence alongside the histories it holds.

This quilt centers on a woman with gray hair—she represents the matriarch, the protector, the bearer of difficult truths. Her vigilance, born from generations of trauma and loss, shaped how I was raised and who I’ve become as an artist, a woman, and a mother. From an early age, I was taught what could happen to me. These warnings were not abstract—they were survival tools passed down through lived experience.

As I came into adulthood, I began to understand the legacy I was born into: a lineage marked by violence, silence, and resistance. Each stitch in this piece holds stories of women who came before me—stories often too painful to speak aloud, but too important to forget.

This work is my offering, my act of remembrance, and a reclamation of voice. Even in its absence from this space, its presence is felt.