Dancing Doilies

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Lindsay Arnold, “Table Dance (still),” 2017

digital stop-motion video projection, two chairs, lamp, bi-level table, four doilies, foldable knitting bag, 17 balls of crochet yarn, 37 crochet hooks, unfinished crochet work, JBL speaker and 18 needlework magazines, 3:12 min., set variable

Doilies laboriously crocheted by many a dear, departed Saskatchewan grandma can be found, from time to time, “dancing” in the home studio of artist Lindsay Arnold in North Portal (pop. 115), two blocks from the border with North Dakota.

Arnold’s husband and daughter are banned from the studio when Arnold creates stop-motion videos, shooting thousands of digital images as she moves doilies a millimetre at a time to replicate motion. When paired with square-dance music, the crocheted dainties seem to dance.

“The process is tedious,” says Arnold. So it’s no surprise that her exhibition, on view at the Art Gallery of Regina until Feb. 22, is called Tedium.

Watching the video Table Dance is, however, far from tedious. It’s about as much fun as one can have in three minutes and 12 seconds. Just listen to how Arnold describes it: “Over 160 doilies take to the dance floor, throwing off their matronly reputations to prove age is no barrier to having a good time.” Right on.

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Lindsay Arnold, “Mess 1,” 2018

acrylic on stained panel, 12” x 18”

In addition to the video, Arnold portrays doilies in trompe l’oeil paintings as realistic as photographs.

The doilies tend to be wounded or torn in some way, reflecting the slings and arrows of the everyday lives of the women who made them. She also incorporates pins, scissors, pliers and other objects. Arnold says the doilies, to her, represent ideas about how women experience the process of aging.

“They are stretched, torn and misshapen, just as we are by marriage, illness, motherhood and time,” she says in her artist’s statement. “Tedium honours the difficult experiences which leave us worn, acknowledges thankless repetitive labour, and reveals some of the manipulations women are willing to subject themselves to in order to preserve appearances.”

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Lindsay Arnold, “Lift,” 2018

acrylic on stained panel, 24” x 18”

The exhibition also includes an installation of a small living room, where visitors can sit and peruse a pile of doily pattern books. And there’s a huge stack of doilies, including the originals from the paintings and video, called 10,000 Hours. The title reflects the amount of time Arnold figures women spent making the doilies.

While the practice of crocheting doilies to protect and decorate tables, dressers and other furniture has largely disappeared, many of these remnants of yesteryear can still be found at thrift stores and garage sales.

Arnold simply spreads the word that she’s embarking on a new project and friends and neighbours show up with bags of doilies, almost forgotten, from the back of their closets. They usually ask Arnold to return them, but she senses they are not in a hurry to see them again.

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Lindsay Arnold, “Pinch an Inch 3,” 2017

acrylic on stained panel, 12” x 12”

Doilies are just part of Arnold’s larger artistic practice, which focuses on the tedium of the overworked, over-controlled women of yesteryear.

Among her creations are pieces of painted china that she calls Fashion Plates, and a series of drawings called Rooted. In both media, seemingly straight-laced Victorian women “play out their dark impulses with a humorous violence.” ■

Tedium is on view at the Art Gallery of Regina from Dec. 14, 2018 to Feb. 22, 2019.