Thought provoking and stimulating CAP talk from KateMacLeod. Kate introduced her practice by saying that she was motivated to make work that isn’t always possible.
Writing about imaginary artwork as though it exists (Ekphrasis) can take down boundaries to the possible. Ekphrastic writing has the potential to hold unrealised artwork / sculptures. This relates back to the Delia Baillie’s sketchbooks and the ideas that are sitting waiting in sketchbooks.
It also creates a sensorial encounter with the work from the fiction written from the audience’s of the impossible artwork. Sculpture is precarious and fallible:-This idea has echoed around me since the talk. I am keen to augment my sketches with writing that frames a situation where ideas are already realised into an artwork (and a bloody good artwork) that can be walked around, talked about, moved on from.
As I looked at Kate’s work and listened to her I was delighted by airy moving universe of ideas and associations that she inhabits. Her raw clay, thrown sculptures of people in communication challenge ideas of sculpture by their transitory nature. She says that relishes the destruction of the work. I am fascinated by the “found” props that she ties in to her figures to support the weight of the clay. Whilst the props are intersesting in themselves and have their own aesthetic, it is surprising how quickly I screen them out and only look at the figures, then tune back into the tension between the figure and the engineering that is enabling it to stay upright.
As we leave the lecture theatre Pascal notes that he is surprised that this was another talk that was interesting and real. He is wondering if it is a phenomena peculiar to Dundee. We agree that it is likely. Whilst Dundee is not without pretension there is a respect for the real and for authentic communication which allows people to talk about aspects of their work that they may not mention in more ethereal environments.
Kate MacLeod collaborates with Delia Baillie. http://www.katemcleod.co.uk
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