Sally Baldwin
I am always drawn to lacelike structures and surfaces: fibres stretched across space to create patterns where the gaps are as important as the solid, giving a feeling of fragility and delicacy even if the structure is quite strong. Whether it is the interlacing of leaves and winding stems and the shadows they create, or the patterns of foamy waves breaking on the sand to create frothy lace borders, I find myself returning to these qualities repeatedly in my work.
I developed a technique of stitching plant imagery into paper and then deconstructing it to create contemporary lace when I was working for my Degree, and it is a process I have continued to use. The white robes shown to the right developed from one of my Fragile Earth pieces called Lost Flowers, looking at the gradual loss of indigenous flower species as temperatures rise and they are unable to adapt. The flowers are densely packed at the top of the robe and become smaller and thin out to nothing at the hem. The top piece was selected for a runway show and exhibition in Tasmania called Paper on Skin in 2022.
The Space Between
The second piece was a development of the original, with a longer train and a hood. It was selected for the Wells Contemporary 2022 and positioned on a mannequin at the top of the beautiful old limestone staircase to the Chapter House in the Cathedral. It appeared as a ghostly figure disappearing up the staircase, evoking all those who had climbed the stairs over the last 700 years and representing the transcience of all things.
