A central piece in the latest body of work by St. Louis based artist Basil Kincaid, Lullaby introduces a mysterious black figure that recurs frequently throughout this series of textile pieces. “This black figure started emerging when I started going to Ghana,” says Kincaid. “It is like this being, a companion to this eternal version of you, connected to the future you, the past you, the present you.” Here, we see one figure resting on a quilt, while the eternal black figure is taking a protective stance. This piece addresses another key topic that has become evermore important to Kincaid, and that is the concept of rest as a revolutionary activity. Taking the liberty to rest, he explains, is deeply connected to happiness, and essential to personal freedom. “One of the most consistent practices of slavery, which we now self-inflict, is sleep deprivation,” says Kincaid. “They’d work you all day and terrorize you through the night.” The average American is sleep deprived and dehydrated. We are working harder than ever before, making sacrifices simply to accumulate more wealth or material things or accolades. “We get coached into depriving ourselves of sleep so we can potentially make a few more dollars, and then we realize not only is sleep essential to life, but we undervalue our sleep life and dream life,” says Kincaid. Lullaby is intimately connected to the notion that your dream life is equally as valuable as your waking life. In fact, the idea to begin quilting was revealed to Kincaid in a dream when he first came back from Ghana in February of 2016. “I had this dream that my grandmother was standing in front of this house and the house was wrapped in a quilt,” says Kincaid. “It was one of the St. Louis row houses, and she was standing on the porch and her aura, her golden light, was washing over me, pouring out over me. Her energy was so strong that I couldn’t get to the house. A wave of the energy hit me so hard I woke up and knew I had to be making quilts.”