Catherine Bertola, Frills and Flounces (Part I), 2007

Frills and Flounces2006-7Laser cut vinylDimensions variableCommissioned by Government Art Collection for the DCMS building, LondonBudget : Fee £1000 plus travel expenses. The £10000 production and installation costs were handled separately by the commissioner.Frills and flounces was commissioned as part of the refurbishment of the DCMS building in London. The brief was to create a work for the glass walls of the meeting rooms, to create a sense of privacy for the meeting rooms themselves while at the same time forming a backdrop for the open plan office.At the time of the commission I had been producing a number of works exploring the history and heritage of lace. The work drew on the extensive research material I had gathered as part of my research into lace, and involved transcribing and then enlarging a series of traditional Bedfordshire lace patterns that were held in the Cowper and Newton Museum, near Milton Keynes. The patterns took the form of ‘prickings’ the templates used in the production of hand made bobbin lace, the dots and dashes that created the intricate patterns were cut into semi opaque vinyl, alluding to traditional decorative etched glass windows. The final installation, exists as a contemporary ‘net curtain’ that wrapped around the surfaces of the glass.

Catherine Bertola

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Catherine Bertola