My curtain entitled Whisperings is currently being exhibited at
Waddesdon Manor as part of the ‘Imagine … lace at Waddesdon Manor’ exhibition.
The theme of the exhibition is ‘house party’ and the lace design had to be
based on an artefact in the Manor. I chose to design a piece of Bedfordshire
style lace based on a bundle of lace trimmings in the Waddesdon lace
collection. The idea is that the lace pattern is quite formal and represents a very
polite and conventional house party which might begin with formal introductions
and polite conversation but then degenerates into a babble of voices,
confidences and gossip. The formal lace pattern is then subverted to become a
tangle of whispers, innuendo and hidden conversations. There are nine ‘whispers’
altogether including ‘Have you heard what she did?’, ‘Keep out it’s not your
business’, ‘He says she’s not herself today’, and ‘He frightens the life out of
me’. So all is not the comfortable veneer we assumed to start with; there are
some hidden whispers and cries for help under that formal pattern.
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