Odyssey
An installation of two stitched wall-hangings in the stairwell of the Queen Anne townhouse by Alice Kettle (b.1961), one of Britain’s leading textile artists. Whilst recalling the tradition of huge figurative tapestries in historic houses, these works use stitch in a contemporary manner as a gesture to create painterly effects with rich surface textures. The two works draw upon Homer’s enduring epic narrative poem The Odyssey, following the journey of Odysseus home to Ithaca after the Trojan Wars.
Pallant House Gallery
Place at the Table
25th November 2014 – 18th January 2015
Following an extraordinary ‘provoked’ meal for curators and artists around which craft and its relationship to the contemporary was debated, a series of craft interventions is in place throughout the Queen Anne townhouse to carry on the conversation.
The installation brings together a range of work by artists who, while sometimes considered ‘craft makers’, challenge such categorisation with the ambition, quality, creativity and thinking behind their work. Artists showing include Alice Kettle, David Grimshaw, Dave Clarke, Vicki Brown, Matt Smith, Paul Scott, Jasleen Kaur, Anne White, Di Hockin, Kate Egan, Guy Holder, Barnaby Carder and Fabrizio Cocchiarella.
The public can contribute to the ongoing debate at www.placeatthetable.tumblr.com, and when visiting the exhibition at the Gallery, which proves an ideal location for the project due to its unique presentation of modern and contemporary fine art practice alongside craft.
Place at The Table is led by Alice Kettle and Vicki Brown with additional curatorial support from Shirley Chubb, and is hosted and supported by Pallant House Gallery, The University of Chichester and the artists agency.
For the first time in VAS history an online submission process will enable the most ambitious, intriguing and innovative submissions from our membership, and from long time and first time open exhibitors. The selection panel have sought out contemporary art and design works which consider and challenge the boundaries between fine art, design and applied arts. Artists, designers and makers have been challenged to consider how their submissions might command the gallery space or be juxtaposed with other art forms and media by the curators to challenge the conventions of mixed exhibition displays. VAS;T 2015 will showcase how traditional media, techniques and skills, along with new and emerging technologies, inform visual ideas and contexts, and extend practices to make a distinctive eclectic show with a sense of drama, mischief and vitality.
Alongside the open submission five exceptional invited artists will make and show a body of new work at the 2015 exhibition, all of whom embrace the spirit of collaborative and interdisciplinary practices and making. They are Alice Kettle, Jane Hyslop, Rachel MacLean, Andrea Walsh and Kim Wilson.http://www.visualartsscotland.org/?p=1633