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| Production line papercut 2006 |
Production
line was made for The Presence of Things: sense, veneer and guise, a
touring exhibition that brought together new works by fourteen
Australian artists and crafts practitioners inspired by the rare
embroidery and lace collections of the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria.
The exhibition was curated by Stephen Gallagher.
My
response to the collection focuses on the makers of the lace rather
than the few who were privileged to wear it. Lace evokes images of
femininity, grace, and the rich and powerful; however the social
context in which it was made was quite different. Handmade lace was
made in sweatshop style production lines even before the industrial
revolution. Often working in crowded and hygienic conditions,
individual workers would specialise in one particular motif. These
separate elements would be passed onto a designer to assemble them
and finally to a worker who specialised in the connecting
background.
The
work traces this history of workers in the textile industry from sole
home worker to the modern day sweat shops.
