On first encountering the colourful, often enormous artworks of Alice Kettle, one would be forgiven for mistaking them for paintings. From a distance, her shimmering, abstract figures, set against the brightest backgrounds of electric blue, sunshine yellow and hot coral and pink, appear to be drawn with the dynamic lines and marks of the brush stroke. But a closer look reveals that it is not paint that is bringing these canvases sometimes as large as eight metres by three metres - to life, but rather stitches of thread. Alice Kettle is a textile artist who, in place of the painter's brush, uses a sewing machine to produce her exuberant and often poignant artworks.
Professor of Textile Arts at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Alice has been working in free machine embroidery and championing the power of stitch since the late 1980s. As well as making her own work (represented by the Candida Stevens Gallery), she leads the design and craft research group at Manchester and, down the years, has been involved in numerous public and community projects, which she is hugely passionate about. For her latest, the Thread Bearing Witness project, first shown at the Whitworth in 2018, she worked with refugees to create three enormous embroidered panels - Ground, Sea and Sky - each one representing their experiences of migration and displacement.
In March, Alice received the highest accolade when she won the Brookfield Properties Craft Award at the Crafts Council's annual Collect Fair for her contribution to craft. The prize means that three of her pieces will be purchased for the Crafts Council's permanent collection, and exhibitions of her work will be held in London this summer.
Alice is still digesting this exciting news when H&A caught up with her at her home studio in Frome.
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Lisa Coppin
The Cotswold Company’s chief creative officer shares the pieces that mean so much to her
TRAVEL
Six of the best pineta, plus a festive trip to Covent Garden. Review of The Orange, Belgravia by Katie Pike, travel stories
OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE
Stumbled upon by chance, this ingenious material was a more affordable option than solid silver, and well-preserved examples are particularly desirable today
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Once the preserve of the wealthy, velvet finally touched all levels of society, thanks to advances in its production process
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Victorian toy theatres charming and exquisitely designed miniature worlds have inspired theatre royalty for decades. Today, the tradition is being kept alive by a small but talented network of makers
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