panoramic pathways

Here is a sneak preview of Panoramic Pathways (Nottingham City Lace), my contributing installation for Make Believe, a forthcoming exhibition opening this week at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery.

The work was produced with the assistance of a group of volunteers based in and around Nottingham. Many thanks to them once again for all their help; the piece simply couldn’t have been made without them. Excluding material used while researching and experimenting, nearly 50 kgs of twine (15kms) was stitched between trees on the castle grounds to produce the piece. In case you were wondering, this is the reason why sisal twine has featured repeatedly in recent dailymades. 

I won’t give too much away with more images just yet as the show is still to open, but there might be more of these coming in the next few of posts, so keep your eyes peeled…  For more info on the exhibition, visit the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art or the Nottingham Museum & Art Gallery website.  Better still, come see the exhibition!

lost in lace

Inspiration lies only round the corner. While in the process of developing my forthcoming installation at the Nottingham Castle Museum (see previous post), I now see now lace patterns everywhere! Here are some examples, alongside actual lace patterns.

This project is truly taking me on a new path of discovery, but might it also drive me round the bend?  No matter, I'm loving being lost in lace in the meanwhile!

knots for Notts

I spent two glorious days in the sun the week before last in the grounds of Nottingham Castle, overlooking the city and rehearsing the making of my next installation for the museum’s forthcoming exhibition Make Believe: re-imagining history and landscape.

The city’s history and connection with lace making informed my contribution to the exhibition: a large scale lace installation created on the lawn around the castle using fencing pins and rope. Helped by three assistants and a group of enthusiastic volunteers, we rehearsed the making of the piece by using our fingers and hands to stitch between trees. We then proceeded to do something close to formation dancing, acting as human bobbins, holding lengths of yarn and winding these around the (metal fencing) pins as you would on a lace pillow. Click here for footage of the rehearsal on the Fermynwoods Contemporary Art website.

Many possibilities and challenges were revealed as we worked and talked about what we were doing and at the end of the two days, I came away from from the activity with a head full of ideas which I’m now processing. I’ve now ordered nearly two hundred fencing pins and can’t wait for the next time I am up there with this lovely group.

Thanks so much to all the volunteers who helped rehearsing the piece, and to my assistants Jess, Sarah and Rossella.  You were all great!