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Alice Fox: Flaxen

21 June - 31 August 2025

Flaxen (21 June – 31 August, 2025) is an exhibition that showcases the artwork Alice Fox has made with materials collected and grown at Kestle Barton over the last two years.

During the growing season of 2024 a crop of flax (Linum usitatissimum) was grown in the almost enclosed circle at the end of the meadow at Kestle Barton. This was a communal activity, overseen by Alice, with help from Kestle Barton staff and a changing team of volunteers. Sowing, tending, harvesting, retting, and processing were undertaken, resulting in fibres for spinning, as well as flax plants dried at different stages for use later on.

During the year Alice visited Kestle Barton in each season, spending time in residence. Each visit added to Alice’s experience and understanding of the place and the materials available for weaving and construction of surfaces and structures. Alice gathered materials in each season and made botanical inks during each visit, building up a place-based colour chart and a library of materials with which to work.

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Alice Fox

My process-led practice is based on personal engagement with landscape and has sustainability at its heart. I am fascinated by the detail of organic things and my work celebrates and carries an essence of what I experience in the natural world. My background in physical geography and nature conservation underpins my artistic practice.

I work with natural fibres and gathered materials, employing natural dyes, stitch, weave and soft basketry techniques. These elements come together in different combinations to create grouped surfaces and structures. Found items form the focus of my response to a landscape, forming tangible links to the places they were gathered from. I take an experimental approach to these found objects: by engaging with the materials that I find, manipulating them and experimenting, I learn about their properties, boundaries and possibilities. This exploration becomes a collaboration between object and artist. My allotment plot forms the focus of my work, providing an abundant source of materials. Read more about Plot 105 in Projects.

I studied Contemporary Surface Design & Textiles at Bradford School of Arts & Media and completed an MA in Creative Practice at Leeds Arts University. I work from the allotment and my studio in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, UK. I exhibit, lecture and teach workshops nationally and internationally.

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