Talking Point: Alice Kettle
Why do you think artists throughout history have used stitch to tell stories?
Alice Kettle uses cloth and thread to make large, colourful artworks. She builds up layers of machine stitching, creating lines, shapes and areas of colour across the surface. Her work brings together stories from folklore and mythology with stories from her own life, showing us how textiles can be used to share real and imagined worlds.
Watch the videos below and use the following questions to explore Alice Kettle’s work.
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Alice Kettle
Alice Kettle is a contemporary textile/fibre artist based in the UK. Alice originally trained as a painter and will often begin her work with a painted background which she then embroiders on. Her large scale work is composed of individual tiny stitches, which combine to form great swathes of colour, painterly backgrounds incorporating rich hues.
Alice Kettle, Odyssey, thread on canvas (2003)
The Scalloped Edge
“The project uses stitch as a common cultural language to make connections through motif, process and metaphor. The sharing and exchange of the tacit knowledge with the local community in a series of collaborative works forms an important part of this collection.
Embroidery in Madeira as with British stitchwork, is undertaken primarily by women. The exhibition uses distinctive elements of Madeiran embroidery reinterpreted into my contemporary works in machine and hand stitch. Titled the scalloped edge, which is a feature of this embroidery, it draws upon the characteristic palette of white or blue and the repeated flowing lines in satin stitch and long-and-short stitch.” – Alice Kettle
Watch the first 4 minutes of this video about the project.
Sea Figure, Alice Kettle, 2016, Thread on linen, 223 x 128 cm
Questions to Ask Children
How does the work make you feel?
How do you think that collaboration benefitted the community and the artist?
What connections can you see to the sea in these works?
How does scale impact the viewers experience of the work?
Threadbound
Watch this video to find out more about Alice’s recent collection for the exhibition ‘Threadbound’.
Questions to Ask Children
What do you like/dislike about the work that you can see in this video?
Did one textiles piece stick in your mind? Why?
If you combined an image of yourself with a plant, what would you choose? Why?
This Talking Points Is Used In...
using sketchbooks to make visual notes
Show me what you see
