Black Lace Shawl, Worthing Museum & Art Gallery

The drawing entitled ‘Black Lace Shawl’ was created in August 2009 as part of my role as Artist in Residence at Fabrica in Brighton. With the help of twenty volunteers I created this drawing in just under six weeks, a task that would have normally taken much longer if I had been working as I usually do, on my own. I initially photographed the lace shawl, which is from the costume archives at Worthing Museum, and then after printing out the photograph life sized, traced it in pencil and completed the drawing using 0.25mm Rotring pens, the lines of ink following the threads in a re-enactment of the lace making process. The volunteers worked in 3-hour shifts in groups of four or five, initially sitting at a practice table where they worked from sample drawings I had prepared of detailed sections of the shawl. Once they had learnt the technique for a particular section they could start working on the main drawing. The project was inspired by the 19th century Honiton lace makers who were commissioned to make the flounce, veil and trimmings for Queen Victoria’s wedding dress, the entire commission taking two hundred people over nine months to complete. There is a long tradition of artists using studio or gallery assistants to help in the creation of their work; but this experience particularly called to mind the work of contemporary artists such as Sol Lewitt, whose formulaic wall drawings are produced entirely by gallery assistants from instructions sent by the artist, as well as installation artist John Grade whose giant paper sculptures, made with the help of teams of volunteers, my residency accompanied.