Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice 1993-94
Art-Net-Work Museum Voor Sierkunst.
Scale is an interesting issue, a comparatively small piece of lace fabric enlarged, assumes an architectonic dimension. Walking down from Central Station, by the canal, into Amsterdam, I passed a long line of typically Dutch waterside, houses. Their elongated proportions pointed gable frontages and plethora of tiny windows remined me instantly of a lace border I’d be looking at, the only real design difference was one of scale and attitude. I decided instantly that the next lace piece would reimagine a section of lace within an architectural, as opposed to figurative context. The surface of the work was very heavily worked into, layers of paint were built up scratched, scored and marked. There’s a conscious desire to create a physical surface that evoked an urban almost graffiti inspired patina. A maid in lacemaking is a term for the support that carried the cushion onto which the pattern and pins were worked.
Lace is not just a material but a way of thinking.
First exhibited Art-Net-Work, Museum voor Sierkunst, Gent, Belgium in 1994 alongside Humpty Dumpty 1994 and The Light is Only Perfect for a Very Short Time 1994.
