Preamble
The first part of this series was designed as a taster of the exhibition. The second part concentrated on lace jewellery. The third part of the series concentrates on laced objects. For your convenience I have listed the other parts of the series below.
Make Lace Not War - Part I
Make Lace Not War - Part II
Make Lace Not War - Part III
Lizz Aston
Artist's Statement: I find a great sense of poeticism in knot-work, being one of our oldest, most basic, yet sophisticated technologies. There is an endless wealth of ideas, associations and symbolism to knots and knotting. I am interested in the knot as a universal language, one that carries residual histories and memory, connecting the past to the present as a living tradition.
Antiquated Notions is a series of burn studies exploring the relationships and residual connections we feel to domestic objects of the past. The patterns and forms take reference from the knotted and interlaced structure of lace doilies. The process of free-motion embroidery and burning are used to intricately render a fabric of negative spaces, as the images are laboriously burnt-out and excavated from within the fiber. Each piece examined themes of attachment, transience and mourning, while celebrating a reverence for the preciousness of materials and handmade objects.
Antiquated Notions.
Description [1]: Doilies (4): Free-motion embroidery and burning using paper fibers and polyester thread.
Size: 350 x 335 x 7 mm (largest).
Peter Battaglene and Fiona Tabart
Artists' Statement: An organic object belonging to a larger whole, the leaf is symbolic of the relationship we share as part of a larger society. We have therefore titled the work Arbor Vitae from Latin "Tree of Life".
Our interpretation of lace is a study of the fractal and lace-like pattern of the veins contained within a leaf's simple form. beautifully reflecting the myriad connections and pathways expressed in micro and macro views of the natural, urban and industrial environments around us.
The graphic expression of this pattern has been enlarged and projected on three glass panels to create a triptych screen. Precisely registered and finely etched onto both sides of the panel, the thread-like network of interconnected lines and voids, positive and negative spaces appear expressed in three dimensions to diffuse the screens transparency.
Amor Vitae.
Description[1]: Screen: Sandblasted toughened glass.
Size: 2000 x 2140 mm.
Sandra Black
Artist's Statement: As a child I grew up with lace tablecloths and doilies on the surfaces of fine polished wooden furniture. Each week my dressing table was dusted and doilies replaced with freshly washed and starched ones. They were kept in a finely carved camphor wood chest to protect them from silverfish. My paternal grandmother and aunts were great embroiderers and crotchet makers, so these objects were highly valued for their craftsmanship and beauty. I have been a ceramic artist for over 35 years. One of my most consistent areas of exploration has been in the carving or piercing of vessel forms to enable the passage of light and the making of patterns, shapes and shadows are an inherent part of both lace fabric and pierced vessels I make.
Etched Leaf Vessel (2010).
Description[1]: Hand polished repeatedly. Bowls (3): Ice porcelain that has been thrown, pierced, etched and polished repeatedly.
Size: 80 x 220 mm (diameter of the largest piece).
Adam Cornish
Artist's Statement: Just as lace creates beautiful and intricate patterns from simple cotton thread, Trinity was designed to create an intricate spiralled pattern from simple construction techniques that utilize negative space.
Trinity was designed as a series of fruit bowls, each self-standing and beautiful enough to be a sculpture. The pattern is cut from five mm stainless steel plates. The twisting geometric pattern creates the woven structure. The bowl was also designed to achieve maximal volume and size from minimal use of material, similar to traditional lace techniques that utilize negative and positive space.
Trinity.
Description[1]: Vessel: CNC-laser cut 5mm mirror polished stainless steel, hand-woven self-tensioning structure with spot-welded joins.
Size: 140 x 400 x 450 mm.
Linda Galbraith
Artist's Statement: I want to encourage the viewer of this piece to delve into their own memories, perhaps to create a nostalgic vision of an afternoon tea filled with reminiscences. I love the way old handmade doilies that I used for this piece felt like they were drenched in memories - the tea stains somehow represent discussions and arguments, the laughter and secrets shared over a cup of tea.
Steeped Memory.
Description[1]: Lace tea set: cotton lace doilies, moulded with glue, digitally printed rice paper and string.
Size: 430 x 510 x 320 mm overall.
Mavis Ganambarr & Koskela
Artists' Statement: Koskela came to us with the idea of doing our weaving on lampshades. I thought it would be interesting to take our traditional Yolngu materials (handmade fiber derived from the Kurrajong tree) and used them on bland (non-indigeneous) objects. The lampshade project was an opportunity to try something new and show our artwork in a new light. I used things I can find at the beach or in the bush around me - like seeds and shells and shark bone and feathers - because they are beautiful and I could do many different things with them. I also like to show other people how they can use things from nature. This is part of keeping my knowledge and culture strong.
Yuta Badayala (In New Light).
Description[1]: Light shade: Hand-woven from pandanus and bush string made with fiber derived from the Kurrajong tree, dyed using local plants.
Size: 700 x 1500 (diameter) mm.
Griselda Gonzales
Artist's Statement: I joined Tekojoja Kuna Rembiapope (a women's co-operative) after my husband lost his job. I get a fair payment for my work and am now able to pay for food, electricity and water for my family. I learnt to make nanduti (traditional Paraguayan lace) from my mother. The story of nanduti (spider's web) is special. According to legend, two young Guarani indigenous boys competed for the heart of a beautiful girl. The poor boy wandered through the woods looking for a gift for her. He raised his head to the heavens to implore the help of Tupac, the Guarani God, and saw a beautiful lace in the branches of a tree. When he touched the lace he found nothing but a torn spider's web. His mother dedicated herself to making the identical web lace. She studied the spider's movements and began to copy it using her needle and strains of her white hair.
Nanudti Lace.
Description[1]: Circular mat: Linen needle lace.
Size: 870 mm (diameter).
Alvena Hall
Artist's Statement: The Ediacaran fossils are the remains of delicate and very beautiful soft-bodied creatures, the first known multicellular animals on this planet. They were discovered on the underside of wave-rippled rocks high in the Flinders Ranges (South Australia) and are about 540 million years old. Researching them I arrived art the notion of "time" as a filter that only selects certain things (under very special circumstances) to become fossils. It is extraordinarily rare for anything as soft and squishy as a 540 million-year-old jellyfish to have its impression preserved. And it is just as astonishing that such imprints are ever discovered. I fell upon the notion of apparently fragile, transparent lace-like objects to express my wonder at these natural phenomenon. Vessels with a sieve-like character, rounded like domestic colanders, cast elusive shadows about their bases. Time determines what now exists, and hence what is knowable and what yet might be found.
Ediacara Laces.
Description[1]: Five vessels: cotton gauze bandaging, rice paper, cotton thread, whipper-snipper cord, bone. rust-stained textile from Ediacaran Hills site, coated wire and computer-designed gulper lace motifs.
Size: 220 x 220 x 130 mm (largest); 75 x 135 x 110 mm (smallest).
Waltruad Janzen
Artist's Statement: I am fascinated by the long history of shoes all over the world; their political and social meaning.
I decided to create shoes in handmade lace. For this pair of boots I used a thin brass wire in free crochet work. Unwearable as these lace shoes are, they are meant to be a homage to the history of shoes.
Boots.
Description[1]: Pair of boots: Crochet using brass wire.
Size: 240 x 110 x 270 mm.
Brownyn Kelly
Artist's Statement: The pandanus bags I have created vary greatly from the shape of coil baskets and dilly bags traditionally created by Maningride artists. I use the traditional pandanus spirals dyed with natural pigment in a new shape and with a new technique.
Pandanus Coil Bag.
Description[1]: Dyed pandanus, coiled and twined.
Size: 945 x 290 mm.
Reference
[1] Make Lace Not War, Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney (2011).
The first part of this series was designed as a taster of the exhibition. The second part concentrated on lace jewellery. The third part of the series concentrates on laced objects. For your convenience I have listed the other parts of the series below.
Make Lace Not War - Part I
Make Lace Not War - Part II
Make Lace Not War - Part III
Lizz Aston
Artist's Statement: I find a great sense of poeticism in knot-work, being one of our oldest, most basic, yet sophisticated technologies. There is an endless wealth of ideas, associations and symbolism to knots and knotting. I am interested in the knot as a universal language, one that carries residual histories and memory, connecting the past to the present as a living tradition.
Antiquated Notions is a series of burn studies exploring the relationships and residual connections we feel to domestic objects of the past. The patterns and forms take reference from the knotted and interlaced structure of lace doilies. The process of free-motion embroidery and burning are used to intricately render a fabric of negative spaces, as the images are laboriously burnt-out and excavated from within the fiber. Each piece examined themes of attachment, transience and mourning, while celebrating a reverence for the preciousness of materials and handmade objects.
Description [1]: Doilies (4): Free-motion embroidery and burning using paper fibers and polyester thread.
Size: 350 x 335 x 7 mm (largest).
Peter Battaglene and Fiona Tabart
Artists' Statement: An organic object belonging to a larger whole, the leaf is symbolic of the relationship we share as part of a larger society. We have therefore titled the work Arbor Vitae from Latin "Tree of Life".
Our interpretation of lace is a study of the fractal and lace-like pattern of the veins contained within a leaf's simple form. beautifully reflecting the myriad connections and pathways expressed in micro and macro views of the natural, urban and industrial environments around us.
The graphic expression of this pattern has been enlarged and projected on three glass panels to create a triptych screen. Precisely registered and finely etched onto both sides of the panel, the thread-like network of interconnected lines and voids, positive and negative spaces appear expressed in three dimensions to diffuse the screens transparency.
Description[1]: Screen: Sandblasted toughened glass.
Size: 2000 x 2140 mm.
Sandra Black
Artist's Statement: As a child I grew up with lace tablecloths and doilies on the surfaces of fine polished wooden furniture. Each week my dressing table was dusted and doilies replaced with freshly washed and starched ones. They were kept in a finely carved camphor wood chest to protect them from silverfish. My paternal grandmother and aunts were great embroiderers and crotchet makers, so these objects were highly valued for their craftsmanship and beauty. I have been a ceramic artist for over 35 years. One of my most consistent areas of exploration has been in the carving or piercing of vessel forms to enable the passage of light and the making of patterns, shapes and shadows are an inherent part of both lace fabric and pierced vessels I make.
Description[1]: Hand polished repeatedly. Bowls (3): Ice porcelain that has been thrown, pierced, etched and polished repeatedly.
Size: 80 x 220 mm (diameter of the largest piece).
Adam Cornish
Artist's Statement: Just as lace creates beautiful and intricate patterns from simple cotton thread, Trinity was designed to create an intricate spiralled pattern from simple construction techniques that utilize negative space.
Trinity was designed as a series of fruit bowls, each self-standing and beautiful enough to be a sculpture. The pattern is cut from five mm stainless steel plates. The twisting geometric pattern creates the woven structure. The bowl was also designed to achieve maximal volume and size from minimal use of material, similar to traditional lace techniques that utilize negative and positive space.
Description[1]: Vessel: CNC-laser cut 5mm mirror polished stainless steel, hand-woven self-tensioning structure with spot-welded joins.
Size: 140 x 400 x 450 mm.
Linda Galbraith
Artist's Statement: I want to encourage the viewer of this piece to delve into their own memories, perhaps to create a nostalgic vision of an afternoon tea filled with reminiscences. I love the way old handmade doilies that I used for this piece felt like they were drenched in memories - the tea stains somehow represent discussions and arguments, the laughter and secrets shared over a cup of tea.
Description[1]: Lace tea set: cotton lace doilies, moulded with glue, digitally printed rice paper and string.
Size: 430 x 510 x 320 mm overall.
Mavis Ganambarr & Koskela
Artists' Statement: Koskela came to us with the idea of doing our weaving on lampshades. I thought it would be interesting to take our traditional Yolngu materials (handmade fiber derived from the Kurrajong tree) and used them on bland (non-indigeneous) objects. The lampshade project was an opportunity to try something new and show our artwork in a new light. I used things I can find at the beach or in the bush around me - like seeds and shells and shark bone and feathers - because they are beautiful and I could do many different things with them. I also like to show other people how they can use things from nature. This is part of keeping my knowledge and culture strong.
Description[1]: Light shade: Hand-woven from pandanus and bush string made with fiber derived from the Kurrajong tree, dyed using local plants.
Size: 700 x 1500 (diameter) mm.
Griselda Gonzales
Artist's Statement: I joined Tekojoja Kuna Rembiapope (a women's co-operative) after my husband lost his job. I get a fair payment for my work and am now able to pay for food, electricity and water for my family. I learnt to make nanduti (traditional Paraguayan lace) from my mother. The story of nanduti (spider's web) is special. According to legend, two young Guarani indigenous boys competed for the heart of a beautiful girl. The poor boy wandered through the woods looking for a gift for her. He raised his head to the heavens to implore the help of Tupac, the Guarani God, and saw a beautiful lace in the branches of a tree. When he touched the lace he found nothing but a torn spider's web. His mother dedicated herself to making the identical web lace. She studied the spider's movements and began to copy it using her needle and strains of her white hair.
Description[1]: Circular mat: Linen needle lace.
Size: 870 mm (diameter).
Alvena Hall
Artist's Statement: The Ediacaran fossils are the remains of delicate and very beautiful soft-bodied creatures, the first known multicellular animals on this planet. They were discovered on the underside of wave-rippled rocks high in the Flinders Ranges (South Australia) and are about 540 million years old. Researching them I arrived art the notion of "time" as a filter that only selects certain things (under very special circumstances) to become fossils. It is extraordinarily rare for anything as soft and squishy as a 540 million-year-old jellyfish to have its impression preserved. And it is just as astonishing that such imprints are ever discovered. I fell upon the notion of apparently fragile, transparent lace-like objects to express my wonder at these natural phenomenon. Vessels with a sieve-like character, rounded like domestic colanders, cast elusive shadows about their bases. Time determines what now exists, and hence what is knowable and what yet might be found.
Description[1]: Five vessels: cotton gauze bandaging, rice paper, cotton thread, whipper-snipper cord, bone. rust-stained textile from Ediacaran Hills site, coated wire and computer-designed gulper lace motifs.
Size: 220 x 220 x 130 mm (largest); 75 x 135 x 110 mm (smallest).
Waltruad Janzen
Artist's Statement: I am fascinated by the long history of shoes all over the world; their political and social meaning.
I decided to create shoes in handmade lace. For this pair of boots I used a thin brass wire in free crochet work. Unwearable as these lace shoes are, they are meant to be a homage to the history of shoes.
Description[1]: Pair of boots: Crochet using brass wire.
Size: 240 x 110 x 270 mm.
Brownyn Kelly
Artist's Statement: The pandanus bags I have created vary greatly from the shape of coil baskets and dilly bags traditionally created by Maningride artists. I use the traditional pandanus spirals dyed with natural pigment in a new shape and with a new technique.
Description[1]: Dyed pandanus, coiled and twined.
Size: 945 x 290 mm.
Reference
[1] Make Lace Not War, Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney (2011).
2 comments:
So enjoyed reading about these artists' works. Thanks for sharing, Marie-Therese.
Hi Lesley ! I'm pleased to hear that you enjoyed reading about these artist's works. The exhibition was wonderful as you can imagine . . . the blog shows a small sampling of some of the stunning works that were displayed.
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