7th International Triennale of Tournai: GROUP EXHIBITION

The 7th International Triennale of Contemporary Textiles, subtitled The Five Continents: Woven World, was held in historic houses all around the city of Tournai in Belgium. Alice Kettle was proud to exhibit three works from her ‘Heads Series’.

The series of ‘Heads’ is an ongoing project, but the research examines three particular works which use stitch as an agent of self-reconstruction and healing. The works play out the cycle of enchantment, disenchantment and re-enchantment in the making process. They use stitch as a constructional device to repair, reconstruct and reform identity. The works look at the shifting of the feminine voice and the raw brutality of trauma and emotional conflict. The analysis reflects theories of Freud, the work of female surrealist artists examining the alter ego, and the work of Louise Bourgeois and Paul Rego who employ the physical processes to represent the base feelings of sexuality and subversion.