Art of the Maker: Alice Kettle

Leading textile artist Alice Kettle will be in conversation with Gemma Brace, co-curator of Threads: Breathing stories into materials.

The Art of the Maker series is a collaboration between Arnolfini and The School of Art & Design and Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE Bristol.

Alice Kettle is an artist who has established a unique area of practice. Her large figurative stitched works, exploit the textures and effects made possible through the harnessing of a mechanical process to intuitive, conceptual and creative ends, in which stories collide with autobiographical and contemporary events, folklore and mythology. Her work is represented in various international public collections including the Crafts Council, the Whitworth Manchester, Liverpool International Slavery Museum, Museum of Decorative Art and Design, Riga, Latvia, Ararat Art Gallery Australia, the Belger Collection, Kansas City USA. She is professor of Textile Arts at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University and has co-authored and edited various publications including Machine Stitch Perspectives, Hand Stitch Perspectives, Collaboration through Craft, and The Erotic Cloth with Bloomsbury. She is represented in the UK by Candida Stevens Gallery.

Kettle’s contribution to Threads: Breathing stories into materials acknowledges the influence of research carried out as part of a wider project with Professor Lesley Millar, University for the Creative Arts.