Australian Landscape Series: Commission for the National Library of Australia

In 1999, Alice Kettle was commissioned by the National Library of Australia to create the Australian Landscape series (1998–1999) for the Main Reading Room. She produced four machine-embroidered panels which took over 18 months to create and used over 5 million stitches. Many of the fine threads are made from synthetic rayon and cotton, capturing the luminescence of the shifting light and the brilliance of the landscape.

Three of the panels hang together and evoke a populated landscape, with impressionistic references to the Library's Maps Collection. The Southern Cross is depicted at the top of the centre and left-hand panels, and the red line and text across the foreground is from a map drawn in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598). A fourth panel, hanging at the opposite end of the room, features a single eucalypt.

Kettle conceived the panels as a commentary on relationships between readers and libraries and between people and landscapes. The works were commissioned and given to the Library by retiring Director-General Warren Horton, in memory of his wife, Patsy Hardy.