Working With Place: Alice Fox on Materials, Place and Quiet Activism
Alice Fox is a textile artist whose practice is rooted in long-term engagement with landscape, sustainability and the creative potential of everyday materials. Working from her allotment and studio in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, Fox creates sculptural and textile works using found, foraged, gathered and grown materials including flax, bramble fibre, dandelion stems, bird’s nests, natural dyes and botanical inks. Her work emerges through sustained experimentation with the physical properties of these materials, allowing processes of gathering, making and observation to shape the final outcome.
Originally trained in physical geography and having worked in nature conservation before retraining as an artist, Fox brings together scientific observation, environmental awareness and textile traditions. Sustainability sits at the heart of her practice. Rather than viewing landscape as a subject to be represented, she engages directly with the materials of a place, allowing local ecologies to determine both the content and methodology of her work. Her long-running project Plot 105, centred on her allotment, exemplifies this approach, transforming a working growing space into an ongoing site of creative research and material investigation.
Through weaving, stitch, basketry, printmaking and natural dye processes, Fox reveals the beauty and complexity of materials that are often overlooked or discarded.
In this interview, Alice discusses the role of landscape within her practice, the significance of working with natural materials and the potential for art to foster more meaningful connections with the environments we inhabit.
BZ: Your work is deeply connected to the landscapes you spend time in. What does a typical period of research or exploration look like when you're starting a new project?
AF: My work with my allotment has been ongoing since 2017 - almost 10 years of engagement with one location and the focus of much of my work during that time. Early on I spent time making dyes, inks, plant prints and investigating the potential materials available on site. I used found objects and developed my techniques with various plant fibres. In the last few years I have focused more on a smaller group of materials - mostly weeds, as well as flax, which I grow a small amount of each year.
Starting a new project means a similar beginning phase for me - ink making with plants is a good way in and helps me to form a kind of map-like record of a place. Gathering materials that are nothing familiar and unfamiliar means I can experiment and find new ways to engage with physical ’stuff’ of the place.
BZ: Your work often emerges directly from the materials and processes of specific places. How do you think a landscape shapes not only what you make, but also how you make it?
AF: Although my work is materials led - the work emerges out of experiments with the material of a place - I do pick up on features within the landscape that find their way in. For instance, the project I did on Cornwall 2024-25 included works that were influenced by features in the garden/fields where we grew the flax, the hedgerows in the area and the mud splashed verges of the lanes and muddy creeks.
BZ: In an era of environmental crisis, how do you see the role of artists in helping people develop deeper relationships with the places they inhabit?
AF: Our work can make people think different ly about the world around them. There is a quiet activism in what I do. I hope that I can reveal the beauty of the ordinary, amaze people with the repetition of simple materials (especially ‘weeds’, and help them connect with the natural world. I can also show that you don’t need to buy new materials or commercially made ’stuff’ to make interesting work.
BZ: When working with natural materials that decay, transform or eventually return to the environment, what does this impermanence reveal?
AF: They will only decay if they are damp/wet. Kept dry they will remain intact indefinitely. They are no different to any natural cloth or basket that might be functional and can last for a long time if dry. But they won’t outstay their welcome on this planet. We age and decay - so why shouldn’t the things we make and own?
What emerges from this conversation is a practice grounded in attentiveness, patience and care. Unlike approaches that seek to represent landscape from a distance, Alice Fox works from within it, engaging directly with the materials, processes and seasonal rhythms of specific places. Her allotment, fields, hedgerows and growing spaces become sites of long-term dialogue rather than simply sources of imagery.
Central to Fox's work is the belief that materials carry meaning. Through gathering, processing and transforming weeds, fibres, leaves and natural pigments, she reveals the richness contained within overlooked aspects of the everyday environment. This approach challenges assumptions about value, consumption and permanence, while offering an alternative model of making based on sustainability and local knowledge.
In the context of contemporary ecological concerns, Fox's practice demonstrates how artistic engagement with place can function as a form of environmental awareness. Her work does not seek to communicate through grand statements or direct advocacy. Instead, it operates through what she describes as a form of "quiet activism", encouraging audiences to slow down, look more carefully and reconsider their relationship with the natural world. Through simple materials and thoughtful processes, she reminds us that meaningful connections to landscape often begin with paying attention to what is already present around us.
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