At first sight, there’s nothing extraordinary about Alice Fox’s allotment in West Yorkshire, England. In actual fact, her backyard group neighbors are “largely oblivious” to the magic she weaves there. The addition of a flax crop could have been a novelty when she first rented the plot, however the measurement and structure of the land, sheds, and greenhouse appear fairly customary—till you look nearer.
Peek via the window of the primary shed and your eyes might be drawn to a beautiful organized jumble of plant pots, trays, instruments, jars of selfmade botanical inks, sketches, scribbles, samples, fragments of ceramics, wire, plastic, and different unearthed objects, in addition to an ever-changing assortment of plant fibers in varied phases of drying and hand-processing. That is the place Fox’s uniquely stunning and thought-provoking textile artwork begins to take type.
Alice took on Plot 105 in Autumn 2017 when she began her practice-based grasp’s program to discover methods to realize higher self-sufficiency in her artwork. Though she’d had a share in an allotment beforehand, with a younger household, she by no means actually had the time to offer to it: “The one means I might justify it was to make it a part of my work,” she says.
In 2020, Alice self-published the story of her relationship together with her allotment Plot 105 and the way her engagement with the location has unfolded since taking it on. At the moment, her ebook sits in a shed, alongside the encyclopedia of gardening left by the earlier tenant. Wanting again, she acknowledges that her yr of analysis “marked a elementary shift in how I supply my supplies. It allowed me to develop as a gardener, giving a specific focus. It offers an area to be amongst nature, get my arms within the soil, and assume whereas working there.”
We met Alice in West Yorkshire this summer season to study extra about her allotment, her backyard, and residential studio, and the evolution of her sustainable inventive follow that’s deeply embedded in land and place. Let’s dig deeper:
Pictures courtesy of Alice Fox. Featured picture (above) by Carolyn Mendelsohn.
