PRESS RELEASE 2014
Alice Kettle: Odyssey
18 October 2014 – May 2015
This October, Pallant House Gallery will display a
selection of textile works by internationally renowned textile
artist Alice Kettle. The highlight of the installation will be
Odyssey, a pair of works based on Homer’s heroic epic of
the same name, which will hang in the stairwell of the
Queen Anne townhouse. Odyssey will be accompanied by
three further works placed in the entrance hall. This display
contributes to Pallant House Gallery’s contemporary
installation programme which focusses on traditional craft
techniques; previous artists in the programme have included
Susie Macmurray, Nina Saunders, Spencer Finch, Wok
Media and most recently, Bouke de Vries.
Kettle initially trained as a painter before going on to study
textile art, and these techniques have strongly informed her
practice as a textile artist, in which stitch is used in painterly
gestures. Her works, often made to very large scale,
recalling the tradition of substantial tapestries in historic
houses, take months of sewing to produce.
Alice Kettle, detail from Odyssey (2003)
Homer’s novel The Odyssey recounts the epic journey made
by Odysseus, King of Ithaca, home from the Trojan War.
The narrative has a particular pertinence to Kettle's work as
Odysseus's faithful wife Penelope famously employs
weaving as a means of protecting herself from re-marrying
and thus proving her fidelity to Odysseus. The people of
Ithaca urge Penelope to remarry, with crowds of suitors
invading her house, and in response Penelope promises that
she will decide between the suitors once she was finished
weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's father. While
Penelope sits all day weaving the shroud, she spends the
nights unweaving it, outwitting her suitors and escaping a
fate that has been decided for her.
While determinedly contemporary in its process and themes,
Kettle’s work contributes to a tradition of thread narrative in
Britain, beginning with the 11th century Bayeux tapestry,
and with the histories of women who have long
communicated their lives and experiences through textile
work. Kettle’s work often draws on the myths and the folk
tales that resonate in our collective psyche and enable us to
discover invisible truths, untangle the structures of morality
and rationalise the experiences of everyday life. In
conflating personal experiences with historical narratives
Kettle creates unique works that resolve inner conflict with
external experiences. The scenes she constructs are
imaginary worlds with a sequence of real and surreal scenes
from borrowed references and figures.
‘Alice Kettle: Odyssey’ will be on display at Pallant
House Gallery from 18 October 2014 – May 2015. Visit
www.pallant.org.uk for more information.
About Alice Kettle:
Alice Kettle’s work explores the deep material connection of
the cultural and human condition. Her work is in collections
such as the Crafts Council London, the Whitworth Art
Gallery in Manchester, the Museo Internationale delle Arti
Applicate Oggi, Turin, Italy, Museum of Decorative Art and
Design, Riga, Latvia. She has undertaken various major
commissions which include National Library of Australia in
Canberra, the High Court In Edinburgh and the Winchester
Discovery centre, UK for which she won a public art award.
She is a writer and lecturer and is currently Senior Research
Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University and is
Visiting Professor at the University of Winchester.
About Pallant House Gallery:
Pallant House Gallery is a unique combination of an historic
Queen Anne townhouse and contemporary extension,
housing one of the best collections of Modern British art in
the country, including important works by Auerbach, Blake,
Caulfield, Freud, Hodgkin, Nicholson, Paolozzi, Piper and
Sutherland. Widely acclaimed for its innovative temporary
exhibitions and exemplary Learning and Community
Programme, the Gallery has won numerous awards since re–
opening in 2006 including the Gulbenkian Prize (now The
Art Fund Prize), the largest for arts and cultural
organisations in the country.
INTERVIEWS/ IMAGES: Anna Zeuner, Head of Communications, a.zeuner@pallant.org.uk 01243 770 823 / 07734
710212