Armel Barraud. Sur la pointe des pieds, elle glissa sous la porte, 2008

Armel Barraud studies in l’Ecole des Arts Décoratifs – university in Paris. There she studies the making of animation films. During the summer she has worked with lace makers from Rauma. The exhibition has been made in cooperation with the Rauma City culture office and it will be displayed during the Rauma Lace Week.

Armel Barraud has been awarded a prize in a competition organised by the French lace organization FFDB (Fédération Francaise des Dentelles et des Broderies). Idea of the competition was to create lace that was different from the traditional lace. After the competition she has designed industrial lace models and studied lace-making in Portugal. The beauty of hand movements in lace-making technigues fascinates Armel Barraud. About interaction with lace-makers, Armel Barraud thinks that with their physical movements lace makers transfer a part of the immaterial heritage of the world to her.

As an artist Barraud searches new uses for bobbed lace. In the exhibition the pieces of art are about images done by bobbing lace, in addition there are metal threads, which are combined with other materials. Every piece of lace is a result of communication between the environment, space and metal threads. According to the artist, these factors combined create a unique mood for every exhibition.

Sur la pointe des pieds, elle glissa sous la porte. (She slided under the door tiptoed) –exhibition tames it’s own private space, the wall seems to be alive and moves in continuity with the light, creating a natural or an unnatural feel. The metal threads allow the shadows to further change the first impression of the viewer. As a material, metal makes the shadows as important as the shapes created by the threads.

The lace in the exhibition is influenced by the time Barraud has spent in Rauma: the emblem of a ship that is in the Rauma Museum, wild dandelions, night of the midnight sun and wood. Barraud tells about the creative process of the exhibition: ”Before I came to Finland, I thought that the city of Rauma would be completely built of wood. When I arrived, I noticed that the scent of the forest and sawmills was present everywhere in the city. The matchstick factory from Kaurismäki’s films had to be near Rauma. I also knew that in the summer there would not be night, but I didn’t imagine my diurnal rhythm would go all mixed up. By placing the design lace in a dim room, I wanted to create night in the middle of the summer. The holes done by the lace makers needles transform into stars. The patterns of the lace blend in to the walls of this house and transform in to a flaming painted wallpaper, which could have belonged to the former owner of this house. The viewer can find the patterns of the lace with a flash light and the perception can vary depending on the angle of the light.“