education programme : AMBIGUOUS
SPACES : Catherine Bertola Paper
“Looking at Lace”
Catherine Bertola
Intro
I’ve called my talk Looking at Lace, because I’ve been
asked to talk about a very specific project that I am working on
for Fabrica in Brighton, and Nottingham Castle Gallery and Museum,
for which I am developing a new body of work based on research into
lace, so I literally have been looking at lace.
Before talking about the research, I would like to introduce earlier
works to provide background and context to my practice.
Past works have involved creating installations and objects that
subtly intervene with the spaces in which they were located. Each
work is made in direct response to the architecture, history and
function of the given place, using materials and imagery familiar
to the site.
The thread that has run through and underpinned my work, is an interest
in traces of human presence and activity, and the sense of mystery
and intrigue that such remains invoke when discovered.
Hidden marks can be found all around us: fingerprints left behind
on the surface of a light switch, dust that collects in the corners
of rooms holding within the layers a history of that place, fragments
of buildings long since abandoned and devoid of human presence–these
are the things that have informed and shaped my work.
If walls could talk... was created in 56 Linosa Close, Liverpool
as part of the Further Up in the Air project, a series of month long
residencies in a vacant and soon to be demolished tower block. The
piece was made by cutting around the leaves of the embossed wallpaper
that decorated the abandoned flat, and then peeling them back to
reveal the bare concrete structure of the building. Spreading from
the corner of the room like damp, it appeared as if the leaves of
the wallpaper had come to life in the absence of any occupant.
I have created many other works in similar demolished or semi derelict
sites, with each location being carefully selected for there unique
qualities and resonance.
Scratching at the Surface was and still is, sited on the gable end
of a building that contains within its surface a solitary upstairs
wall of an earlier demolished domestic building. By literally scratching
through the accumulated layers of paint and debris that still clung
to the surface, an intricate wallpaper pattern was formed, that crept
across the surface. Through reintroducing decoration to this neglected
deteriorating space I attempted to instill a sense of grandeur and
importance, suggesting how it may have once appeared during its original
habitation.
These site-specific pieces have existed as both temporary and permanent
works, relying on the architecture and history of a space to provide
both material and context for the work.
Which brings me to the project I am currently researching for Fabrica,
which is a gallery space, and not at the time Frances Lord and Liz
Whitehead approached me a space in which I was familiar with working.
Although Fabrica is not exactly a white cube, but a deconsecrated
church and although stripped of pews it still retains some of the
original features.
At the time I began discussions with Frances abd Liz, I was going
through a process of reevaluating my work. I was at a stage where
I was being asked to recreate the installation in different galleries,
which became a very dissatisfying and frustrating process. So I began
to go back and question what I was interested in, drawing on strands
and ideas that had come from creating these site specific installations.
Particularly the process and labour involved in the production, and
how that related to the domestic and the role of women within that
arena
My first approach to dealing with Fabrica, was to use familiar tactics
and approaches, by responding to the architecture and history of
the building itself. I felt that this approach was not going to enable
me develop the work and use some of the ideas that I had begun to
research.
I decided to look outside the gallery and discovered this amazing
archive of photographs, prints and painting of 19th century women
associated with Brighton. This eclectic collection of people fascinated
me not in terms of their appearances is per se, but their individual
histories. The women ranged from serial murders, soldiers, academics,
business women, courtesans, political and social activists. All breaking
the mould in terms of the belief at that time of how women should
be, examples of which can be found in imagery and literature, from
the time such as the writing of Mrs Beeton and Mrs Panton, who’s
texts informed women on every issue from cooking to dress codes,
to decoration and etiquette. I wanted to try and recreate these portraits
using a traditional female pursuit such as embroidery.
I’d already begun to make work where I played around with
these ideas in pieces such as Flights of fancy-Manchester circa 1900
(2005). Where I took found photographs of empty interiors, from Manchester
City Archive and superimposed myself into these little worlds, undertaking
the ritual of drinking tea and imagining what it would be like to
have lived in that world.
It was around this time, that Nottingham came on board-and Nottinghams
history with lace, although it was machine made lace, things seemed
to make sense in the first instance because lace is the epitomy of
femininity. made by women and for women.
The first hitch was that creating portraiture in lace is practically
impossible so I had to think of other ways of creating monuments
to these women. So began to look more closely at lace garments and
designs and the symbolism, history and function within this.
With the help of Clare Browne at the V&A and Jeremy Farrel at
Nottingham textile museum I gained access to there amazing lace collections.
One of the first things I wanted to understand was how lace is made.
What interested me about lace is not only the meticulous repetitive
process and the parallels with my own methods of making, but the
economy around lace, as lace makers were often the breadwinners.
I became interested in the relationship between the maker and the
wearer, in terms of the similarities ad parallels in their roles,
status and how that measures up against the prescribed and expected
ideals presented at the time
The area of lace making that I am most fascinated by are prickings.
Pricked are the vellum templates from which lace is made. They are
the skeleton of the final object, the point at which the lace is
transformed from the design to the garment, from the hand of the
maker to the body of the wearer. It is this transaction I am interested
in and how that can be used to symbolize the opposing position of
the makers and the wearer.
This is simply an introduction to my work and the development of
this particular project, describing the journey I have made.
The exhibition is due to take place at Fabrica in April 2006, touring
to Nottingham Castle Museum and Gallery in January 2007. Currently
awaiting the results of a funding application.
Catherine Bertola
11 November 2005
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