Merletti

Merletti/Lace, Spello, Italy, 2012

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These drawings on Abaca paper were produced in the summer of 2012. I recreated and animated the images by drawing each individual stitch. This detailed and time consuming process is a conceptual reference to the labor that went into the production of the original handmade pieces. The stitches become a sort of text/typography encoded with meaning and therefore signified the production of knowledge and culture. My process continued and I explored the ideas of text in the patterns, isolating individual or specific types of stitches to see exactly how much information was needed to maintain the intent and design of the piece. I also explored the idea of lace making and the fact that it was knowledge, culture and craft passed on from one woman to another, mother to daughter. I imagined that a younger woman might switch from the color black I initially was drawing with to a more contemporary color. I chose fuschia to represent this transition of information.

(exerpted from the upcoming catalogue for the exhibition Susan Harbage Page. Lo Strappo della Storia / Conversations with Lace.)

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