On 11th March 2011 Japan was hit by a tsunami and earthquakeof biblical proportion - boats and buses were deposited on topof buildings, whole communities disappeared leaving no trace. Itseemed as if nothing could be worse than this destruction, and thencame the accompanying nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima Powerstation. The combination of the overwhelming power of nature andthe folly of mankind shouted its terrible message across the world.Alice Kettle has looked into the heart of this dark time of tragedyand hubris. Taking Milton’s notion of felix culpa - that good maycome from catastrophe, she has built, stitch on stitch, an allegoryfor our time. Turning from Death and Sin, she shows us no promiseof redemption, only a pointing of the way. All are stripped bare;the woman is both the grounded source of life and the abused;the children face us as witness, victims and the future; the angel ismoving forward while looking back - to see if we are following? Is itpossible to rise from the ashes? The Japanese have an answer: forthe past millennium, every 20 years, the Ise Jingu Shrine is torn downand rebuilt. Nothing is certain, everything may be re-made.

Lesley Millar MBE
Director of the International Textile Research Centre
Professor of Textile Culture
UCA Farnham