Sea by Alice Kettle

About a week ago, I visited the Winchester Discovery Centre to see Alice Kettle’s exhibition. I was looking at this piece for probably more than half an hour, it was so thought provoking as of the different mark makings and different mediums put into one massive piece. The use of colour, the bright neon orange against the shades of blue.

This piece is called Sea, one of Kettle’s first several planned works, which she made for the ‘Thread Bearing Witness’ Exhibition. This piece represents the migrant crisis. It was her perception, from a broad concern for groups of anonymous people as viewed through the distorting lens of the media, to a greater understanding of the impact on individuals and a search for a way to show support and represent them, through the shared mediums of textiles and stich.

I had imagined it, how it would be completed in a smaller size and made it more elaborate. There was so much fine detail in the bigger piece, although as a challenge I would want to see how it would transform smaller. I would want to see more threads hanging off the piece creating a chaotic atmosphere in the room. The chaos about how the refugees need to escape and forget their identities. Also, I want to complicate the lines to make more of a confusion. Realistically, creating a piece like that would be a struggle as it requires a lot of patience. Doing it on a massive piece itself, is challenging and inspiring.