Alice Kettle
Pioneering textile artist, Alice Kettle, an interview.
Internationally renowned, pioneering artist Alice Kettle whose work is regarded as boundary breaking and contemporary. “Alice Kettle has established a unique area of practice in stitch, consistently and on an unparalleled scale.” V&A Museum.
Alice Kettle’s work is regarded as boundary breaking and contemporary in its process, yet it also evokes a deep sense of the fundamental with it’s themes. Her approach is immersed in the relationship we as humans have with nature, the world and each other. “We are part of the material world as physical beings” she says “… implicated in a generative cycle of relationships”.
What’s your story? I was born and grew up in Winchester where I have returned to live and work. I studied Fine Art painting at the University of Reading, at a time which emphasised expressionism, colour and the physicality of painting. Our tutors were Terry Frost, Mali Morris and Albert Irvin, influential artist whose legacy is present in my work in its scale and energy of line. I went onto to study Textile Art at Goldsmiths’ College, a place pre-eminent in defining textiles as artistic practice through its Head of School Audrey Walker and her predecessor Constance Howard. In placing textiles at the centre, I discovered my creative voice, drawing on the histories and associations with the feminine, the domestic and the marginalised.
How do you create the story? Stitch has an improvisatory quality and its repeated gestures are like acts of reparation. The thread is different in thickness and type. It is stitched as though drawing in repetitive rhythmic patterns which build up over the surface. As the thread is often too thick to fit through the needle the work is done from the back, so that as though blind I cannot see what is happening on the front until it is turned over. This adds to the unpredictable quality of the work.
Who has shared your story? I have works in the many international collections including The Crafts Council, London, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and the Museo Internationale delle Arti Applicate Oggi, Turin, Italy. Commissions include those at the National Library of Australia, the Scottish High Court, Edinburgh, Gloucester Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, the School of Music and Drama at Manchester University and Winchester Discovery Centre, Lloyds Register.
Where might the next story take you? I am working on a solo exhibition for a gallery in Madeira which includes work of the embroiderers of the island. I am Professor of Textile Art at Manchester School of Art, where I writing and teaching embroidery and crafts.
