Alice Kettle on the diversity of work selected for ‘Threads’ at Arnolfini: ‘Intimate, personal powerful, challenging and surprising’

The 2023 summer exhibition at Arnolfini is set to bring the medium of textiles, in all its many forms, front and centre.

Threads brings together a hugely diverse collection of work from artists making work that explores themes from migration to post-colonialism; gender and identity to the environment.

Alice Kettle – herself an internationally lauded textile artist – has co-curated the collection. She shared her insights with Bristol24/7 in the run-up to the opening.

Women’s Craft Club at Arnolfini – photo: Lisa Whiting

For you, what is the abiding power in textiles?

“That it speaks at many levels: we encounter and use it in our everyday lives, so that it carries many meanings and associations, for example the clothes we have handed down or how we have learnt to knit or sew. It also carries cultural meanings, and links us through trade and exchange. It can be intimate, personal, powerful, challenging and surprising, as we see in this exhibition. The act of making means we can make our own meanings, so that what is within the textile conveys our own stories too.”

What does the curation of this exhibition afford you in terms of representing the art form in new or unfamiliar ways?

“It creates connections between works, which speak to each other. Themes and connections can be suggested and realised, sometimes surprisingly. This means that wider stories can be told from multiple viewpoints, techniques and approaches, and materials can be interrogated across mediums, through different artistic voices. Through these works we see themes present that are contemporary in their viewpoint, such as how we use materials going forward, how we express social and political challenges, or how we view ourselves.”

Textile artist Celia Pym joins Women’s Craft Club at Arnolfini – photo: Lisa Whiting

What decisions did you need to make in selecting the specific works featured in Threads?

“We chose contemporary artists who showed how textiles are used with authority. The works are all grounded in textile process or textile meaning. All the works understand how textiles, as a medium, has its own distinct voice.

“We included established artists for whom textiles is central to their work as well as young artists who may not always be so familiar with it. There are those who work only with textiles and others where they use textiles within a wider practice. We wanted to show ambition, and deep knowledge of making across a variety of approaches and through different materials.”

How are you hoping to engage the wider public in the power and breadth of the medium?

“There is a terrific engagement programme at Arnolfini to complement Threads, inviting audiences to participate, on whatever level they feel, and to share their stories.

“A Gallery Guide has an invitation from our partner Bridges for Communities with creative prompts to help people think about their own stories as they explore the exhibition.

“The Community Workshop will be open as a creative space in which people are welcome to weave, mend, knit, crochet and embroider. Learn and Make Cards will be available filled with information about different textiles techniques that artists use in Threads, with guidance on how to make.

Bristol Textile Memory Map – photo: © Arnolfini

“An Eye Spy Trail will challenge people to try to find details from some of artworks in Threads. There will be a Feeling Wall in the Reading Room, with samples made by local artists, including Arnolfini’s friends at creativeShift, for people to understand what the work in the show feels like.

“Bristol Textile Memory Map is an opportunity to listen to some stories and memories shared by the local community and find out more about Bristol’s long history of textile production and Bristol’s current textile community.

Summer Family Workshops at Arnolfini – photo: courtesy of Let’s Make Art

“The Theatre space will host family workshops throughout August, led by creator’s in residence at Arnolfini, Let’s Make Art. Activities range include a big yarn collaborative weaving, stitch your own purse, design fabric, customise a sewing kit, pom pom making, weaving, friendship knots and thread dolls.

“During the opening weekend, on Sunday July 9, everyone is welcome to join us in the Theatre for Unravelling Threads: Stories from the Artists, a series of informal in-conversations between myself, co-curator Gemma Brace and exhibiting artists (including Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Young In Hong, Richard McVetis, and Anya Paintsil) to unravel just some of the interweaving stories and memories explored in Threads.

“Talks will take place every half hour; they will include an opportunity to ask questions, and can be joined at any point in the session. We have comfy seating available (bean bags and yoga mats) and you are invited to bring along a sewing project and make whilst we talk.”

Women’s Craft Club at Arnolfini – photo: Lisa Whiting

Threads: ‘Breathing stories into materials’ is at Arnolfini from July 8-October 1 (Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm). The exhibition is open to all and will be bookable in advance, though walk-ins are welcome. Talks on July 9 will begin at 1pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3pm. All ancillary activities are free but Arnolfini welcome donations for anyone who can so that they can keep workshops accessible for everyone. More information is available at www.arnolfini.org.uk.

Main photo: Alun Callendar (Alice Kettle)

Read more: Arnolfini announces summer textiles exhibition – ‘Threads: Breathing stories into materials’

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