Research - Lace

Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by hand, and then eventually machine. Lace is divided into two main categories, needle lace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted or crocheted lace. Other laces such as these are considered as a category of their specific craft. Knitted lace, therefore, is an example of knitting. 

The origin of lace is disputed by historians. An Italian claim is a will of 1493 by the Milanese Sforza family. A Flemish claim is lace on the alb (a garment) of a worshiping priest in a painting about 1485 by Hans Memling. But since lace evolved from other techniques, it is impossible to say that it originated in any one place.

Needle lace is a type of lace created using a needle and thread to stitch up hundreds of small stitches to form the lace itself. In its purest form, the only equipment and materials used are a needle, thread, and scissors. The origins of needle lace date back to the 16th century in Italy, and its origins may be found in the openwork on linen technique called reticella.

Bobbin lace is a lace textile made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread, which are wound on bobbins to manage them. As the work progresses, the weaving is held in place with pins set in a lace pillow, the placement of the pins usually determined by a pattern or pricking pinned on the pillow.

 

(making of Bobbin lace)

The word “lace” comes from both the Middle English and Old French word, las, derived from the Latin laqueus, which means noose. The exact origin of lace is undetermined by historians, as the process evolved from other textile methods. Lace was always an expensive luxury item because of its painstaking, time-consuming production. Lace styles evolved throughout the centuries in response to changes in fashion. Both men and women wore lace from its inception to the eighteenth centuries. It was often the costliest part of dress and reflected the sophisticated tastes of the aristocracy. Lace adorned women’s and men’s collars and cuffs, draped women’s shoulders, hands, heads, covered entire gowns, and decorated furnishings. The excessive sums of money spent on extravagant laces prompted many rulers to place restrictions on the wearing and importing of lace from other countries. Whereas in modern day, it is more less expensive so that anyone else can buy it and use it, as well as gather inspiration for own works just like mine.

 

Originally linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used. Now lace is often made with cotton thread, although linen and silk threads are still available. Manufactured lace may be made of synthetic fibber. A few modern artists make lace with a fine copper or silver wire instead of thread, thus supporting the fact that only people with status and wealth were able to afford such creations made with such materials. 

Research - Historic/religious and Contemporary art

Religious art is artistic imagery using religious inspiration and motifs and is often intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred or religious art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realisation within an artist’s religious tradition. This type of art is important because religious paintings idealise, suggest, glorify, and tell the story of a religion. They keep religious traditions alive and make it easier for individuals to visualise a concept or event that is otherwise difficult to imagine using mere words.

As visible religion, art communicates religious beliefs and values through iconography* and depictions of the human body. The foundational principle for the interconnections between art and religion is the reciprocity between image making and meaning making as creative correspondence of humanity with divinity. 

(*Iconography is a branch of art history, studies the identification, description, and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from artistic style)

An example of religious, historic art is Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, specifically the moment after Jesus announces that one of his apostles would betray him. Its thorough use of space, understanding of perspective, treatment of motion and complex display of human emotion, has made it one of the Western world's most recognisable paintings and among Leonardo's most celebrated works. Three vertical windows behind the figures, the central window being directly behind Christ, highlighting his figure and importance. The exterior, seen through these windows, suggests a green and lush mountainous landscape. Whereas behind the Twelve Apostles, it is the opposite, suggesting that they were not as valuable as Christ, with non-other than darker, doorway-like spaces behind them.

The meaning of the painting is a festival which remembers the escape of the ancient Israelites from Egypt. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover meal together. As this was the last meal that Jesus would share with his disciples, he took elements of the Passover meal and made them symbols of his death.

Contemporary art is the art of today, however, it is produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that continue the challenging of boundaries that was already well underway in the 20th century.

 

Contemporary art provides opportunities to reflect on society. It often reflects issues or values that are important or talked about in the world at this time. It is part of an ongoing conversation that touches on topics such as identity, community, nationality, spirituality, politics, and more.

An example of contemporary art is Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup,” produced between November 1961 and March or April 1962. Campbell's Soup Cans work suggests a mechanical uniformity that is repeated in the thousands of homes that have a similar object, a banal and common representation of the spirit of our time. Warhol continued to express his ideas about consumerism and kept using repetition in his work. Thus, Warhol creating several works that involved the same theme of Campbell’s Soup Cans throughout the years. The fact that this work look simple to recreate, it gives us the idea that anything can be represented as a piece of art, no matter the subject, context or point in time.

We can learn that religious paintings are used to expound a moral message, as “some say the paintings create an atmosphere that connects their minds with the realm of the spirit like the Buddhist and Islamic paintings which are widely used for meditation purposes.”

But we learn that Contemporary art is important due to its historical value being a product and witness of a specific time and era. It enables us to state, gain insight, and question certain socio-cultural or ideological/political developments, raising awareness, calling the world to a halt, and encouraging debate.

Each image can inspire us to create art no matter how much detail in, if it is a lot of detail like “The Last Supper” and a very simple image like “Campbell’s Soup.” But the scale of theme images can emphasis this by making the viewer ask for a reason why an image so simple is so enlarged.

Research - 2 artists

Teresa Whitfield

Teresa Whitfield creates intricate ink drawings of historic lace from different museum collections across the UK including Nottingham Castle Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum. Her work explores the demise of the hand-made lace industry and challenges preconceived ideas about lace.

Teresa Whitfield’s work has been included in popular exhibitions at places such as the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal West of England Academy, Leeds College of Art and Nottingham Castle Museum and she has had solo shows at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Worthing Museum, and the Somerset Museum of Rural Life.

Her techniques and processes consist of almost forensic in its precision and is inspired by similarities between lace-making processes and line-drawing, starting with the detailed mesh as a background before using detailed shapes to create intricate detailed flowers and leaves. Her skills for these images to be hand drawn make her skills and techniques more credible, with her sticking to her colour palette of primary colours and shades. Her uses of black and white make the darker patterns stand out more and be more eye catching to the viewer, the assorted patterns on each part of the lace can represent a different theme, such as life or death.

The name of this image created by Whitfield is called “Blue Lace Underslip.” The needed use of a steady hand and keen eye to keep the steady repetition of the patterns throughout the image. The change in colour from Whitfield's usual darker pallet to a lighter one can help convey emotions and how this work would be seen. In context of the 20th century where women would wear lace, this would have been a piece of day wear for women of wealth that shows status and their wealth as lace would have been expensive, as this is based on a mass-produced 1960s Marks and Spencer machine-made lace underslip. The process of creating this work would have been starting with the outlines before creating the patterns to create texture and depth with precision all through-out.

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The name of this image created by Whitfield is called “Black Lace Agent Provocateur Corset.” And upon close inspection, it will be seen that this was created with cross-stitching for the dark and textured areas, thus also creates a fabricated look, as well as smaller, intricate mesh shapes for the rest of the corset. The colour choice of this work can give us the idea of the corset being designed to be a formal piece of clothing, especially for women in the 18th century where a corset could have been seen as a status symbol, because ‘it constrained the wearer's physical mobility, thus supposedly demonstrating that she could afford servants’ as well as feminine beauty and respectability.

Click here to see full image, as the format isn't correct here.

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NeSpoon

NeSpoon is a Polish artist. Beginning in 2009, her works that have been created range between street art, pottery, painting, sculpture and jewellery, most of her works consists of traditional laces, either made in clay or painted on walls. NeSpoon’s work consists of painting lace like murals enlarged on the side of buildings, where the detailing is much larger than it would be on a canvas, thus being more lifelike.

These works by NeSpoon are called “MUSA Festival | Mendicino | Italy | 2022” and “LINK Festival | Brescia | Italy | 2022.” The artist has chosen a lighter coloured pallet for both works to stand out in the day light for all other people to see, but white has been used for this to stay with the traditional lace techniques. NeSpoon’s process for these murals is to spray paint a rough outline of a section before continuing with a lot more details to show its depth and smoothness.

[MUSA Festival | Mendicino | Italy | 2022] 

[LINK Festival | Brescia | Italy | 2022]