Cal Lane’s sculptures juxtapose industrial materials with domestic elements. Their fabrication process involves the labour-intensive hand cutting of lace fabric patterns directly into recycled steel oil tanks and I-beams. Alternately strong and delicate, masculine and feminine, practical and frivolous, the sculptures deliberately confuse notions of function and ornament.

Lace has associations with both hiding and exposing — whether as a covering veil or revealing lingerie. It also has an association with purity when used in religious ceremonies, christenings, weddings and funerals. The dramatic contrast between lace and steel introduces a level of gravity and humour to the work. Like a wrestler in a tutu, the absurdity of these opposing extremes is meant to inspire a gut reaction rather than a rational response.

These contradictions suggest a process of opposition that creates a sense of balance as well as a clash between one's first impressions of the materials. The physical removal of material to reveal deliberately delicate patterns in the hard surfaces of large oil tanks and I-beams. The result is a desirable opposition, a transformation of recycled relics into heraldic emblems of a lost industrial age.