This essay by Professor Simon Olding was published in the exhibition catalogue that accompanied the exhibition 'The Narrative Line', held at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland, from 30 October 2010 until 12 January 2011.

'The Narrative Line' is a two-person exhibition featuring work by UK-based Alice Kettle and Irish artist Bernie Leahy. Both artists draw upon their daily lives as the raw material of their work. Kettle investigates the dynamics of everyday relationship through the vehicle of the mythic; Leahy explores the detail of the everyday - both share an interest in the quality of line and of drawing. Working through the medium of textiles, both employ thread and line as a narrative function, in the way that it describes the relationships between the characters and objects they depict.

• http://www.nationalcraftgallery.ie/exhib...
• http://issuu.com/craftscouncilofireland/...