Production line


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.