Katy Knowlton THIS (one) GOES OUT TO EVERYONE or THE THREE ESSES
Artist Statement As part of a group show at Place I will be installing a body of work inspired in it's structure by memorial shrines and templesThe main concept of this work is the relationship that spectacle has to sadness, eroticism, and spirituality. This investigation points out the familiarity of sad imagery within present culture, and the humor that is inherent in the repetition despite how dark this familiarity can be.
I will begin with a minimal installation of video with sculptural lighting. Over the course of one month this installation will evolve. Periodically I will be leaving objects of mourning, fetishization and spiritual reverence to complement the videos.
The overlap and similarities that exist within these three themes (sadness, eroticism, and spirituality) is particularly relevant because of how common it is in human experience. There is an ambiguity that exists in the piece. This ambiguity within the imagery is there to resist an absolute of what is being mourned, what is being fetishized, or what is being worshiped.
Process My process is an act of gathering. I am constantly taking photographs with different cameras that I carry around. I then make whatever I feel is necessary to finish communicating whatever it is that matters to me. There is a lot of research that surrounds my practice. With my collection of images, it becomes important to incorporate reusing, and reweaving past work into evolving work. It is common for me to make videos and photographs that include a figure, but don't communicate a portrait at all. My treatment of the figure is impersonal, and directed.
Biography Katy Knowlton currently lives, goes to school, and makes art in Portland, OR. She was raised in Bountiful, UT where you can find her family of eleven blonds. Because of her love/hate relationship with the photograph, Katy dips into installation and video. Her art practice began as an antidote for the boredom she experienced in the community she grew up in. As she has continued her process has evolved into a celebration of experience. Katy Knowlton "loves the world." Katy will graduate from Pacific Northwest College of art in the Fall of 2011.
