Reflections on Bummock: The Lace Archive Symposium

Abstract

“Reflections on Bummock” explored and expanded upon issues arising from the residency and exhibition, Bummock: The Lace Archive, held at Backlit Gallery, Nottingham, in 2018. The symposium reflected on the work of three artists, Andrew Bracey, Danica Maier, and Lucy Renton, and how they spent two-and-a-half years researching the Lace Archive held at Nottingham Trent University to catalyze the creation of new artworks. “Bummock,” which refers to the large part of an iceberg hidden beneath the surface of the sea, was adopted by the artists as a heuristic device to explore unseen or undervalued parts of archives to generate new readings, knowledge, and responses. Discussions included the artists’ development of a “controlled rummaging” methodology to select items, and how the exhibited outcomes illustrated “the flipping of the bummock” to reveal the underside of the archive. The resulting artworks were idiosyncratic, referencing historical lace objects through traces of supplementary documentation, as opposed to replicating the more seductive, esthetic characteristics of the textile. Invited speakers Amanda Briggs-Goode, Deborah Dean, Sian Vaughan, and Pennina Barnett contributed alternative insights to working with the materials (and politics) of archives, based on their experiences as, respectively, a custodian, curator, historian, and writer.