Blankets Get Cold, Too

There’s a work of art at the Henry Art Gallery I can’t stop thinking about. It’s a sheet of plastic—thick, construction-grade—suspended from the ceiling with all the pomp of a medieval tapestry hanging at the Met. It’s clear, but slightly milky in places where the translucence has turned mottled and hazy from use. Its polyethylene edges have been meticulously whipstitched with undyed white twine, the corners embellished with braided hemp tassels.It’s pa