Abstract

The Bummock is the large part of an iceberg hidden beneath the surface of the sea. This is a metaphor for our project, where our processes allow underexplored aspects of an archive to be brought into public view; for it to become the ‘tip’. Our paper will present the results of a research residency in the Lace Archive, Nottingham that used the unseen parts of the archive as catalysts for the creation of new artworks. Three artists, Andrew Bracey, Danica Maier and Lucy Renton spent two years rummaging, exploring and making. The artworks created have recently been exhibited alongside the archival material that was used as the starting point for the artists’ research.We sought to explore and expose often tangential aspects to lace process or materiality in order to unearth hidden narratives within the history of Nottingham’s industrial past. The city was once the heart of the lace industry during the heyday of the British Empire. The Lace Archive housed at Nottingham Trent University, holds 75,000 items of lace, which have been acquired from bequests by local companies and the Nottingham Lace Federation. Its growth and continued use, gives a unique opportunity to scrutinise aspects of lace history, such as technical proficiency and innovation. The essence and potential of textiles can often be found in the material itself when used by artists, however the creative possibilities of the peripheral information and items collected in an archive can allow alternative and rich catalysts for new artwork and understandings. The paper will reveal the working processes and outcomes of the artists involved who all responded to lace as subject, but did not use lace or textiles directly within their outcomes. Furthermore, each artist sort peripheral aspects of lace, namely factory ledgers, technical drawings, uncatalogued samples and interior design books. We seek to present how our findings, through working with underexplored areas of the Lace Archive and using alternative research methods to standard archival practice, allowed new possibilities for working with lace as subject, rather than material/object.