03 Sep 2010
Article - 26.10.2009
Contemporary artists and designers find new uses for an age-old tradition.
Sometimes the past can weigh heavily. Lace as a decorative art form has existed for hundreds of years, but despite its illustrious history and the immense skill and talent involved in its creation, as a contemporary craft and design element lace has an image problem. Often maligned as fusty and fussy, lace is relegated to the past with little thought for its future.
For artists and designers on the cutting edge, however, there’s no better time than when an art form has fallen out of fashion to bring it back in. In the world of interior design the minimalism of the nineties gave way to renewed interest in craft and the handmade, bringing a healthy eclecticism to the fore. Lace, with its mathematical precision and ability to create staggering intricacy out of a simple thread, fit well into the trend and the moment.
‘Lace is the only material that unites ornament and construction; it consists of nothing but ornament,’ Boijmans van Beuningen Museum curator Mienke Thomas told Frame magazine on the occasion of Ander Kant (Other Lace), a recent exhibition of contemporary lace motifs in the realm of design. Designers aren’t the only ones with a fascination for things lacy. Visual artists have also used the tradition of lace to produce works that are undeniably contemporary. We look at a few:
How to Plant a Fence, Joep Verhoeven, 2005
The Netherlands is home to both a great lace-making tradition and a strong culture of contemporary design, with innovators such as Droog Design wowing design crowds around the world. (Most recently in the Sydney Opera House exhibition hall.) Joep Verhoeven, a young Dutch artist and designer, combines the two traditions in his piece How to Plant a Fence. Here, a chain link fence – itself a kind of lace – is deconstructed and rewoven into a classic bobbin-lace motif. It places tradition in a contemporary context and also pays homage to the robust qualities inherent, but often overlooked, in lace-making.
Wheels, Jean Goldberg, Australia, 1985
Contemporary artists with a postmodern bent will often reinvigorate interest in traditional crafts, such as lace-making or embroidery, by using them to depict subject matter that is decidedly non-traditional. (Think of the sublime use of embroidered pornography in Ghada Ahmer’s compositions.) Jean Goldberg’s Wheels continues the pictorial tradition of lace-making and predates a lot of recent contemporary work that relies on such juxtapositions. The now-retired, needle lace-maker and painter took her inspiration from a newspaper advertisement for cars. ‘Jean wanted to prove to her students that there are design sources everywhere,’ says retired Powerhouse Museum curator Rosemary Shepherd. ‘So it’s little cars paying homage to the big flashy one. And it’s mounted on a piece of red metal, another car reference.’
Harriet Parsons, Australia
Artist Harriet Parsons says she wasn’t interested in lace in and of itself. As a painter, Parsons approached the thread in lace-making as a drawing medium and experimented with it in her multimedia installations - simple electrical circuits that communicate with themselves, creating a morse code of sorts. Taking inspiration from indigenous ink-on-paper drawings from the 19th century, Parsons wanted to make art that 'expanded the picture plane' and relied on information about a place rather than a description. 'With thread I wasn’t limited to the edge of the picture,' says Parsons. She learned the art of needle lace to create her sculptural drawings, and used the structure of the lace to insulate the circuits responsible for the sounds the artworks emit. 'I was more interested in lace from an engineering point of view, rather than a decorative one,' she says.
Visit the Powerhouse Museum's Lace Study Centre to broaden your view of contemporary lace making and study historical techniques. Speak to our specialists and find inspiration in around 300 examples of handmade lace.
Lace in Translation at The Design Center, Philadelphia University
Joep Verhoeven
Harriet Parsons
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
TAGS
+ Lace
+ Dutch design
For artists and designers on the cutting edge, however, there’s no better time than when an art form has fallen out of fashion to bring it back in. In the world of interior design the minimalism of the nineties gave way to renewed interest in craft and the handmade, bringing a healthy eclecticism to the fore. Lace, with its mathematical precision and ability to create staggering intricacy out of a simple thread, fit well into the trend and the moment.
‘Lace is the only material that unites ornament and construction; it consists of nothing but ornament,’ Boijmans van Beuningen Museum curator Mienke Thomas told Frame magazine on the occasion of Ander Kant (Other Lace), a recent exhibition of contemporary lace motifs in the realm of design. Designers aren’t the only ones with a fascination for things lacy. Visual artists have also used the tradition of lace to produce works that are undeniably contemporary. We look at a few:
How to Plant a Fence, Joep Verhoeven, 2005
The Netherlands is home to both a great lace-making tradition and a strong culture of contemporary design, with innovators such as Droog Design wowing design crowds around the world. (Most recently in the Sydney Opera House exhibition hall.) Joep Verhoeven, a young Dutch artist and designer, combines the two traditions in his piece How to Plant a Fence. Here, a chain link fence – itself a kind of lace – is deconstructed and rewoven into a classic bobbin-lace motif. It places tradition in a contemporary context and also pays homage to the robust qualities inherent, but often overlooked, in lace-making.
Wheels, Jean Goldberg, Australia, 1985
Contemporary artists with a postmodern bent will often reinvigorate interest in traditional crafts, such as lace-making or embroidery, by using them to depict subject matter that is decidedly non-traditional. (Think of the sublime use of embroidered pornography in Ghada Ahmer’s compositions.) Jean Goldberg’s Wheels continues the pictorial tradition of lace-making and predates a lot of recent contemporary work that relies on such juxtapositions. The now-retired, needle lace-maker and painter took her inspiration from a newspaper advertisement for cars. ‘Jean wanted to prove to her students that there are design sources everywhere,’ says retired Powerhouse Museum curator Rosemary Shepherd. ‘So it’s little cars paying homage to the big flashy one. And it’s mounted on a piece of red metal, another car reference.’
Harriet Parsons, Australia
Artist Harriet Parsons says she wasn’t interested in lace in and of itself. As a painter, Parsons approached the thread in lace-making as a drawing medium and experimented with it in her multimedia installations - simple electrical circuits that communicate with themselves, creating a morse code of sorts. Taking inspiration from indigenous ink-on-paper drawings from the 19th century, Parsons wanted to make art that 'expanded the picture plane' and relied on information about a place rather than a description. 'With thread I wasn’t limited to the edge of the picture,' says Parsons. She learned the art of needle lace to create her sculptural drawings, and used the structure of the lace to insulate the circuits responsible for the sounds the artworks emit. 'I was more interested in lace from an engineering point of view, rather than a decorative one,' she says.
Visit the Powerhouse Museum's Lace Study Centre to broaden your view of contemporary lace making and study historical techniques. Speak to our specialists and find inspiration in around 300 examples of handmade lace.
Lace in Translation at The Design Center, Philadelphia UniversityJoep VerhoevenHarriet ParsonsMuseum Boijmans van BeuningenTAGS
+ Lace
+ Dutch design