This June, Quilt 23, my commemorative quilt for Rudolf Nureyev, will be exhibited in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern as part of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt.

I made the work to honour Rudolf Nureyev whose extraordinary contribution to dance transformed the cultural landscape and whose death from an AIDS-related illness remains emblematic of a generation of artists lost during the AIDS epidemic. The quilt forms part of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, a remarkable collective artwork created between 1989 and 1996 by friends, partners and family members in remembrance of those who died from AIDS-related illnesses.

From 12–16 June 2025, visitors will be able to experience the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt in its entirety within Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Forty-two quilts and twenty-three individual panels will be displayed together, recalling the quilt’s original public presentations, where it was shown outdoors in Hyde Park as both an act of remembrance and a powerful form of protest that challenged silence, stigma and political indifference during the AIDS crisis.

For me, this exhibition is a reminder that textiles have long carried histories that extend beyond decoration or utility. Cloth can become a repository for memory, grief, love and collective action. The AIDS Memorial Quilt demonstrates the unique capacity of textile practice to bear witness, connecting individual lives to a shared social history through the simple yet profound act of making.

Quilts of Love, Hyde Park 1994, as featured on The History Workshop’s Journal: Radical Object: UK AIDS Memorial Quilt by Clifford McManus.

The presentation is organised by Tate Modern in partnership with the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, initiated by Charlie Porter and curated by Elliot Gibbons, Tate’s Collaborative Doctoral Researcher. I am honoured that Quilt 23 will form part of this important public act of remembrance.

One of the most moving aspects of Quilt 23 is that no panel exists in isolation. Rudolf Nureyev’s memorial sits alongside six others, each carrying its own story of love, loss and remembrance. Together, they form a collective portrait of a generation. Among them is a panel that remains deliberately concealed beneath a white covering. A pinned note explains that the family asked for the work not to be publicly displayed because the stigma surrounding AIDS had not disappeared. It ends with a question that remains painfully relevant today:

“A Red Ribbon is not enough. The Quilt is not enough. What will it take? Attitudes must change.”

The surrounding panels remember Alan Tiller, Michael Blicq, Michelle Cross, Nigel and Scott MacDonald. Some incorporate favourite flowers, personal photographs or treasured possessions; others use materials, colours and techniques chosen because they were inseparable from the lives being remembered. Nigel’s panel, for example, was made using his own paints, while the marbled border employed a technique he called “bagging”. His friend wrote that his determination “to squeeze every drop of pleasure from each hour was, and will always be, an inspiration.”

These works demonstrate that the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is more than a memorial. It is a collective archive of lives, relationships and acts of care. Each panel preserves individual memory, while together they reveal the profound human cost of the AIDS epidemic and the resilience of the communities that refused to let those lives be forgotten.

To have Quilt 23 shown within Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall is therefore not only an opportunity to remember Rudolf Nureyev, but also to stand alongside the many other individuals whose stories continue to speak through this extraordinary textile monument.

The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt reminds us that textiles can hold memory with extraordinary tenderness. Each panel bears witness to an individual life; together they insist that those lives continue to be seen, remembered and honoured.

Quilt 23: Rudolf Nureyev

This final image shows my contribution to Quilt 23, created in pink velvet with gold lamé appliqué and hand-applied ruby and gold crystal beading. I wanted the materials to evoke the theatricality, brilliance and luminosity that defined Rudolf Nureyev’s extraordinary presence on stage.

At the centre of the panel, a pair of winged ballet boots appears beneath his name, suggesting both movement and transcendence. The inscription L’ange suprême (“The Supreme Angel”) pays tribute to an artist whose influence transformed twentieth-century ballet and whose legacy continues to inspire dancers, artists and audiences around the world.

Displayed alongside the six neighbouring memorial panels, the work becomes part of a much larger act of collective remembrance. Together, these quilts demonstrate how textiles can preserve individual lives while bearing witness to a shared history of love, loss and resilience.

Further reading

Discover more about the quilts here and also at the Oxford University Press History Workshop Journal: Radical Object: UK AIDS Memorial Quilt essay by Clifford McManus and selected BBC coverage.