Kantlijnen by Brugge Plus vzw

The following seventeenth-century passage of verse sings the praises of the work that issues from the lacemaker’s hand: ‘The issue is a fine web, open to the air with many an aperture, which feeds the pride of the whole globe; which shows grandly round the throats and hands of kings: and, what is more surprising, this web is of the lightness of a feather which in its price is too heavy for our purses.’6 Portraits show us how the nobility wore lace in the past. In the portrait of the Archduchess Isabella (1566-1633) by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622), the head is visually separated from the body and presented on a lace platter. The light reflects on the white collar and illuminates the face. As the outer edges of the collar are more openly worked they merge with the background, so that the spectator’s eye is drawn to the brighter centre.7 Lace can be used to accentuate certain parts of the costume and to create contrasts. Movement and stillness are accentuated by the light material. It is only through movement that the lace comes to life. It catches and reflects light; its transparency means that what is revealed in one moment is concealed in the next.

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Diamond Chair 2OO8 Nylon H 58 x 52 x 25 cm For premium car manufacturer Lexus Photography by Daico Ano

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In Serena, an installation created by Tamar Frank and Rudolf Nottrot in the Memling in Sint-Jan-Hospitaalmuseum, we see this aspect of historical lace in a contemporary light and the spectator constantly experiences the room in a new way. Depending on the position of the spectator and his viewpoint, the stretched threads form transparent or closed areas, thinner or thicker lines, which then catch the light or cast their shadow on the surrounding area. The work is like a reduction of lace to its most elementary components, namely thread, light and movement.

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Modernism In the nineteenth century, lace was machine-made and produced in large quantities. After 1850, cluttered and overornamented interiors, copiously fitted with curtains and carpets, made lavish use of lace, very much in the manner of the clothing of that time. A typical object was the antimacassar, a lace cloth, sometimes crocheted, which was meant to protect the head rest of armchairs from the Macassar oil men used in their hair. In the twentieth century the modernists waged a successful campaign against interiors like this, so that the use of lace in an interior was regarded as a sign of middle-class, old-fashioned conservatism.

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Ammar Eloueini CoReFab”116 chair 2OO6 Polyamide H 81 x 67 x 5O cm Manufacturer: Materialise/Mgx*, Belgium Photography by AEDS (Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio)