Lucy Renton
An exhibition in conjunction with the Decriminalising Ornament conference at Anglia Ruskin University, based around the work of Dutch pattern designer Hansje van Halem and master printer and publisher Jan de Jong,
A version of my work A Bit of Skirt was invited to contribute to this exhibition and is a site-specific sculpture using printed patterned fabric to explore 'skirt’ and‘skirting’as terms
that are active and passive, gendered and neutral, decorative and functional.
While seemingly partial, or incomplete, the work uses its reduction to hint at an excess of
patternation, and the human compulsion to decorate apertures and borders.
Skirting around floor and wall, it occupies the marginal tectonic territory between space to be
looked at, and space to be walked on. Subverting the polte domestic function of concealment
that characterises both skirts and skirting boards it actively seeks our attention with brash
mass-produced colours and seductive pleating.
