When I first heard Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery were putting on a lace exhibition, my initial thought was: “Goody, goody! Supermodels slinking saucily in their undies!”

Then I was made acquainted with the musings of Lesley Millar, the exhibition curator. In the programme, she writes: “This exhibition explores the structures and meanings of lace, and asks questions about how we divide space, both physical and architectural.”

Hmmm. Doesn’t sound much like a flesh-flashing festival, does it?

And indeed it isn’t.

Though after my initial disappointment, I found plenty to please, and that was worth pondering.

Lace is a stretchy fabric, and this is a very stretchy exhibition, yanking and twisting at the very concept of what the stuff actually is.

I always assumed it was a wispy, feminine material.

Though not in the hands of Michael Brennand-Wood. In Lace the final frontier he turns it into something closer to khaki. The patterns he has spun are of planes, bombs, soldiers and skulls.