Artist Statement

After the Industrial Revolution handmade lace lost its value. My intention is to reinvent it, restoring its value as an aesthetic object and its importance as part of our culture.  My work focuses on handmade lace, exploring ways of communicating and raising awareness of lacemakers, both past and present. 

I have developed, through this web publication, "LaceWeb", connections between lacemaking and the artist: Within this, The Virtual Museum of Private Lace Collections is my response to the dilemma facing museums with regard to housing real objects. This alternative method of exhibition has enormous potential for the future, as it is available all the time and can reach a global, socially inclusive audience.

Another aspect of my current research entailed the photographing of hundreds of lacemakers’ hands beginning at an event, which I organised in February 2008 at The Forum in Norwich. 

For the latest exhibition held at the Norwich University College of the Arts, www.maexhibitions.com, in September 2008 I chose five photographs of pairs of hands to represent five hundred years of lacemaking, depicting all ages of lacemakers.

This work was influenced by the photographs of Christian Boltanski who has said that his photographs represent those that are “all similar but different," "not a group", "one person", "they were nobody", "now dead", "each having a life and its own story”. Although these lacemakers’ hands are living hands, they recall the thousands of lacemakers, past and present, who may never be known to us.

Click a gallery to view these hands  1   2   3   4 

A third aspect of my work focused on the magnification of lace samples, to encourage the viewer to engage and experience a sense of wonder.

Additionally, my studies have focused on challenges facing textile collections, such as the collections housed at the Costume and Textile Study Centre in Norwich where I am a volenter. This has involved researching alternative and innovative ways of exhibiting lace.