A diary of an artist caught between the reality and dream; inner and outter worlds; starting and finishing a work; making and becoming the work itself.
Alice Stokes
drawing | sculpture | photomedia | installation
hello@alicealice.art
Instagram: @alicealiceart
CV
‘Floor Frottage’, 2026, graphite on black paper, approx. 40cm x 200 cm.
‘Shadow Leaves - Seoul’, 2026, paper clay and sumi-e ink, 24 components, various dimensions, approx. 3 × 7 cm each. *Background manipulated with ai
Untitled photographs, 2026, 8 bit digital photographs.
May - July 2026.
A frottage of fake wood linoleum.
An imitation of an imitation. Catching the odd stray hair, vestiges of a shared girls house (let’s not talk about the bathroom).
Paper-clay leaves peel the imprint from nearby mountain leaves. In these mountains a murder of crows or a conspiracy of ravens haunt.
S h a d o w L e a v e s - S e o u l :
There’s a prettiness about the landscape here. Or perhaps it’s only the surface that I gleamed. An awareness of being seen, shiny as a mirror.
*background manipulated with ai
8 b i t p h o t o s :
Under the bridge is a strange artifice of nature. A man made picturesque stream that swallowed a disused highway whole.
These works were chaotically photographed in the frantic anxiety before flying from Kyoto to Seoul. In the eerily peaceful aftermath, they were then reimagined for the screen and the collective dream-scroll in the internet.
‘Shadow Leaves’, 2026, paper clay and sumi-e ink, 23 components, various dimensions, approx. 3 × 7 cm each.
‘Branches Stare’, 2026, natural branches, paper clay, and sumi-e ink, 8 components, various dimensions, lengths ranging from 15–78 cm.
‘Noh Mask Eyes Folded’, 2026, graphite on paper, 5 components, 14.5 x 19 cm.
Exhibition : 2-7 June 2026 (12:00-19:00 / -17:00 last day)
Art Gallery Hyakkei : @aghyakkei
50 Okazaki Kitagosho-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8336, Japan
Gallery ALC : @kyoto.okazaki_gallery_library
2F/3F TM Building, 51-8 Okazaki Kitagosho-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8336
Apr 2026
S h a d o w L e a v e s :
Scattered in on a breeze from the night dream. Blurry-eyed and caught on the edge of morning, on the shores of sleep.
These paper clay leaves hold the imprint of fallen forest debris from Kyoto, Japan. Like fingerprints, infinitely unique and each with their own life story of birth, death and decay. Painted black as the night behind our eyelids. Black as the backdrop that stars float in.
Some mornings, a dream will cling a little longer than the others. As if fragments from your inner world soaked through to your waking life.
B r a n c h e s S t a r e :
There is a concept that the world you perceive is a mirror reflection. In this sense the internal and external co-create your experience of reality. One might not be conscious of everything projected onto the world (the old chip on the shoulder). But like looking at a mirror, when you do look out onto the world, you might find your world watching you back, waiting.
These branches grew in the forests of Kyoto and fell into the painted ink, black shadows of a dream. Their eyes drawn in shiny graphite are not easily found (or photographed) on this curved surface. Staring patiently.
N o h M a s k E y e s F o l d e d :
A mask mimics the surface of a face. Through the Noh Mask, the deep depths of emotion are openly conjured and transmuted into the performance. The eyes of our face can both accidentally reveal and stoically block any leaking feelings.
The face as a surface where emotions unfold. These folded drawings play with the idea of the surface of a mask unfolded and what is in front and behind the eyes, a projection or retraction of emotions. Eyes drawn floating in the shadows where we hide our secrets and watch our dreams.
A Scurrying
drawings, sculpture and installation:
Tabby tip toes: red lead on black paper. Red fingertip hoods: paperclay, red origami paper, and red string. Finger branches: tree branches, black gouache, graphite and fishing line. White rabbit: paper foam clay.
Mar 2026
As you might ask a dead thing with the poke of a stick: “dead or alive?”... The finger-branches hanging from spiderwebs ask the space: dead, dream, art or life?
Waiting on the periphery, red tabby toe shoes hover, wondering if they should also scurry, scamper, scuttle & skitter into the woods, where the shadows stretch out.
Kyoto Skin
drawings and paper installation
graphite and red lead, on black and origami paper
Feb 2026
Roof shingles ripple like goosebumps chasing a draft into the room. The wood grain from the floor slips off the ceiling.
Delicate hairs of pencil, brush along the tree’s rough crusty calluses. Life clumsily scratches at the skin, whilst dreams drift in, out and through.
Hallow paper poles prop up an illusion of the solid structure and so-called stability.
Between our dreams each night, are we so solid? Or, are we invisible jelly-blobs of thoughts, feelings & personalities playing make-believe in this physical form?
Tip toeing in red around these questions.
momento mori to the rabbit hole
repurposed wardrobe
H 200 x W 130 x D 49cm
Jan 2026
self portraits
photographs
18.11.2025
In this muted world they both glowed red.
People asked why?
But she didn’t really know.
tip toes
graphite on black paper
H 29.7 x W 21 cm x D 90gsm-ish
2019
the libation
graphite on black paper
H 29.7 x W 21 cm x D 110gsm-ish
2018
spiders & spirographs
graphite on black paper
H 29.7 x W 21 cm x D 110gsm-ish
2019
dead and creaky keys
video
00:01:40
24.08.2025 impromptu performance
Elizabeth Farm Museum, NSW, Australia
Echoes of my childhood scurried around this historic house
museum. I grew up with creaky furniture like these and pianos with dead keys.
Why do grown-ups forget, this world is our playground?
Why do grown-ups forget, this world is our playground?
video
0:35 mins
06.04.2024 audio collage from:
Scarlett Street
Film / 1945
- o ”How long does it take you to paint a picture?”
- - “Well, sometimes a day, sometimes a year. You can’t tell. It has to grow.”
o “I never knew paint could grow”- “A feeling grows. You know, that’s the important thing: feeling. Well, nobody ever taught me how to draw. So, I just put a line around what I feel when I look at things.”o “Yeh, I see.”- “It like, erh... It’s like falling in love, I guess. Every painting, if it’s any good, is a love affair.”o “I never heard anyone talk like that before.”