Nottingham was the place where lacemaking began with factories full of workers working as lacemakers. Therefore, their lives and relationships formed building towards something greater than the self; amongst the struggle there is hope. In connecting this with my work I like to look at the layers of life connections. For no matter the environment or the treatment of the human, the multilayers link to the delicate beautiful lace. How many hands did this product go through? Can I see the beauty in the connections made in these spaces, the strength that unites small communities of workers, and friendships made within these spaces.
Lace was only available to people who had wealth but was made by people who did not have money from the pickers of the cotton it is made from, and slavery, to the millworkers such as those who worked in Adams building. Nottingham was the main producer of lace partly due to the machinery which made it possible to mass produce lace being adapted in 1813 by Leavers who was based in Nottingham.
The Adams building where we create our projects was a lace mill which was inspired by the renaissance and designed to show the grand wealth of the owner and the façade of wealth.
I have worked in a factory in Nottingham that was once world famous for its blinds. Hillary blinds was the place with orders of 49 blinds a day working with mainly females. These spaces become some kind of second home, working between 8.30 and 5pm ,Monday to Friday. Referring back to the Lace Mills families and individuals who may have struggled labouring endless hours, one of the youngest workers recorded was working at 3 years old. When thinking about lace, I think of the sacrifice and the strength of the people from various sides of the globe, from the cotton fields to the designers to the mill.
Research
With a deep need to find history within lace, I have researched through participating
in a choir, singing a song in relation to lace. This was for a recording at a place I had never been before , the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Hall. Within this place there was lots of lace machinery. Before I took part in this recording I did some lace rubbing and a mixed media piece drawing in slavery images with lace mills and a modern woman in lace .
Recently I went to see the lace archive
at Nottingham Trent University where there were various files of work donated and found.
It has been in Bonnington, Trent University for 15 years and it is classed as a teaching collection. Collected over the decades to train lace designers with donations from factories that have come and gone . There are wood collection sample books dating from 1890. There are plenty of lace samples within this space.
Making an appointment to view, I knew I wanted to see the collection within this space. However, I was searching for more information about people's life, relationships and the transactions of human behaviour. I was informed by Jayne Childs, one of the curators that the University of Nottingham had more information in relation to the business side of Lace .
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With a need to find history within lace, I have researched through participating
in a choir, singing a song in relation to lace. This was for a recording at a place I had never been before , the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Hall. Within this place there was lots of lace machinery. Before I took part in this recording I did some lace rubbing and a mixed media piece drawing in slavery images with lace mills and a modern woman in lace .
I was informed by Jayne Childs, one of the curators that the University of Nottingham had more information in relation to the business side of Lace .
Wanting to get some kind of understanding of Nottingham and how it found itself to be on the world stage within the times of the industrial revolution with lace Nottingham .
After the exhibition I had to push forward continue the research I wanted expand on the piece that I had created for Newstead by going bigger than I already had I worked on a large weaving board with the wire this was a square frame like a photo frame with
nails around the edge wrap and looping over, creating a large grid was the same technique used already. Once I had done it, I took it off the frame and began sculpting along with the human form sculptures. At first, I liked what I had created then I began to for what I wanted to do, I would really need to dig deep for labour in making lots more human form sculptors. I then ventured into the thought of destroying it artfully. Thinking of throwing the baby out of the bath water. Then I began thinking of the things I was looking at, like books on the economics of Nottingham, the education of Nottingham workers in the factories. I am often more drawn to the human experience condition within my projects and I can see a pattern.
Process
Wanting to get some kind of understanding of Nottingham and how it found itself to be on the world stage within the times of the industrial revolution with lace Nottingham .
After the exhibition I had to push forward continue the research I wanted expand on the piece that I had created for Newstead by going bigger than I already had I worked on a large weaving board with the wire this was a square frame like a photo frame with
nails around the edge wrap and looping over, creating a large grid was the same technique used already. Once I had done it, I took it off the frame and began sculpting along with the human form sculptures. At first, I liked what I had created then I began to for what I wanted to do, I would really need to dig deep for labour in making lots more human form sculptors. I then ventured into the thought of destroying it artfully. Thinking of throwing the baby out of the bath water. Then I began thinking of the things I was looking at, like books on the economics of Nottingham, the education of Nottingham workers in the factories. I am often more drawn to the human experience condition within my projects and I can see a pattern.
I kept sculpting the words and playing with sample sounds of a lace machine, then I recorded my voice speaking and singing, creating layers and textures using my voice and adding a sample of a lace machine. ISculpting the sounds developing the layers the texture
levelling the sounds layering my voice using reverbing eq compression and panning with certain words. I think I like it, however I feel this should be placed with a piece of film. It feels like an intro to something more I feel this could develop. Still, I was unsure and so I began to go through my work returning to the original photos I took when I did my first set of painting. I edited these photos, taking from colour to black and white using exposure ,shadow, brightness and contrast this really transformed the images printing them off to A3 .
After creating this, I began looking at the wire I wanted to make into figures but I was unsure of where I was 100percent taking this and how to make these figures so I thought I should draw some first. Instead, I looked up some of my previous drawings and began using the wire knowingly and unknowingly working with these materials. I pushed through instinctively with the material and the more I did the work the better the sculptures got. Using various pliers to get strong and rounder shapes for the bodies the thoughts I was having were about relationships within lace and the strong worldly connection formed through lace and the legacy that is lace. I connected how it helped form a society through friendships and relationships which would have developed with them holding church service education
within the Lace Mills.
Other ventures for exploring ideas of lace and strength of community included developing some sculptures of human forms and hanging them on fabric, joining them together and hanging them, and then drawing them. I took photos of them and digitally manipulated them on the Sketchbookpro using opacity to layer the same image repeatedly and rotating the image around to create a translucent but solid image. I completed five different drawings and painted on the original drawings. I chose colours that complemented each other to experiment with those that would take on the image I wanted which was of an image of strength and outward looking.
I collected and pressed flowers and referred back to previous work where I used flowers to colour my drawings. However, I decided this was not the way forward for this work. I went to wire, and used my weaving board to weave the wire developing four pieces looking at how the human form sculptures could work with the wire structures to pursue what I wanted to produce regarding the lace. I produced a leaf to see how the abstract shape could be used . I felt I was being overly protective of the work so I began to mould and sculpt a strong circular shape which held the forms inside . Originally, the piece which is now in Newstead was going to be hung from the ceiling but the materials I would have used did not complement it, so I weaved another wire piece and added it to the structure so this is where the wire piece became more alive for me.
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The Setting
Newstead as a setting was introduced to us by a visit and talk by one of the curators who spoke about the history of lace and showed us lace which had been donated to the Newstead collection. The connection I made was to the people who wore it and the people who made it rather than the craft of the lace itself. The story behind the lace was my stimulus rather than the lace patterns and intricacies. I appreciated the delicacy and the beauty of the process and product. However, the history and lives of the people interested me more.
The relationships built within the space, be it friendships, sorrow, laughter and struggles and the working together for something bigger than themselves – the lace.
The setting of Newstead demonstrates the multiple layers of the spaces. The grandiose nature of the building and ruins of the Abbey linked to those that washed and ironed the lace. What did lace mean to those living at Newstead? Linking this to today, how we see lace now that it is affordable and everyday. Everyone can afford it, but people are still treated poorly and not paid fairly for producing it. Have we moved on in how we treat people and do we consider how lace is produced anymore than they did in the time of lace production at Adams? Once items become everyday, do we stop valuing them and how they are produced? Society has become a throw away place and we do not think about the conditions of the workers and the waste produced. We look to the past to condemn the practices but are we continuing these practices and not looking at ourselves enough? I do not claim to have the answers, but I guess there are always trades offs even with the greatest of intentions.
Taking our work to Newstead , we had pieces of work that were in harmony as there were multiples that used the same kind of medium creating a solid repetition in relation to style but individual in relation to the pieces of work with various individual pieces to contrast balancing the light and the space. There was work with a strong structure along with delicate light and layered work . It took team work to decide on the placing of our work .
Evaluation
The piece stood out because I used materials that were not obvious. It was successful in portraying the industrial through the wire and the community through the form.
The process has made me think about being more minimal in my resources as I like to use multiple resources and multilayer. I am continuing to explore and have a larger weaver and intend to explore wire further.
I was disappointed that I did not have the facilities to explore further the drawings due to the laser cutter computer not being accessible due to technical problems. I like to work with fabric and multi layers of different materials and how they can complement each other. However, it showed that I can adapt my work within practical parameters. This was the same with the sublimation print which would have been a digital print on fabric. I could not do this due to the lack of technical facilities. I would like to develop this as soon as the opportunity arrives this year as I feel it gives the depth to my work I want.
I would have liked the opportunity to use the research we did over the summer to title my work. However, the Comments book is an interesting way to interact with the public and get feedback for personal work and the exhibition.
For the conclusion of the project, I put forward the sound piece because I found that my initial way of researching, looking at various books and programmes, about the economic situation within the Lace factory, the era and Nottingham in particular, was not stimulating for me. I wanted to say more and although I could have done this potentially with the sculptures and the photos, it did not feel enough for me. As I have created a sound piece for every piece of artwork on the course, whether I had used it or not, I felt I needed to take a chance in a different direction. I think it works on its own but I feel it would work better with multiple layers such as film with hints of the lace world
giving it a poetic slant.
I think this is a direction I would definitely like to go with for my next project. Rather than creating it as a sideline for a project, I will make it a focal point.
Further Research
Artist Barbara Licha is a sculptor from Poland her work is inspired by the
Complexities of human beings I connected this to my work as I took the
materials and I reflected on the strength of the metal wire into human relationships and
strength within lace. I see the delicateness and fragility with the contrast of the human,
along with the dark and the light and the intricate details of the human experience and relationship. Her use of materials create an organic movement within the human form and this is something I take into my work .
Titled PLAKA
Karen Axikyan
title mess
Title Different approaches
An artist who works in various mediums such as oil painting and batik print before
Pursuing sculpture. Working on human forms that appear to display emotion
through the positioning of the forms, free but still strong, his work is sensitive and minimal with the focus on the main colour being silver. The wire displays a rawness an vulnerability in his work . I connected this in where they are
born Yerevan, Armenia, in 1963 . Looking at both these pieces of his work it sits within struggle, relief and hope . The use of materials
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white using exposure ,shadow, brightness and contrast this really transformed the images printing them off to A3 .
