Exoplanet
Exoplanet at General Hardware Contemporary, June 20 - August 8, 2020. Documentation @LFdocumentation
Curious Lights in the Eye of the Storm
Kate Wilson’s images are both familiar and strange: vegetation is intertwined with remnants of industry and architectural elements, celestial bodies appear as molecular structures, and alien forms invade natural wastelands. The landscapes are caught up in some form of turbulence: storms and twisters appear to bend grasses in different directions, and the large central image seems to be a world alone, itself revolving rapidly through the atmosphere. Nonetheless, the artist refers to the works as “small, contained architectures ”with“ an aesthetic of ruptures that serves to make the familiar visible and readable in an intentionally new way.”
Wilson’s current world focuses more on the powerful forces of natural phenomenon. This work reflects her concern that while technologies like genetic modification, monocultures, and oil extraction are devastating natural environments, natural phenomenon, like hurricanes, floods and climate change also are radically altering our environment. Her ‘small contained architectures’ are deeply imbedded in organic environments that themselves are caught up in wild weather. Winds toss about her planets; a black flower is unusually large, bowed grass stems brush over and hide architectural forms. The lights referred to in the title are rendered in black and white, difficult to discern and more readable as balls of energy than sources of illumination.
Echoed in each drawing that itself can be read as a planetary orb revolving around itself and others under the weight of a turbulent atmospheric weather system. Wilson describes her process as one where she ‘jumps into the image and follows the line.’ This process allows her to lose herself in detail and simultaneously bring out hidden environments. Their rays beckon to us and pull us into the image where we can roam on the back of a fictional wind and allow ourselves to be swept up by wildly orbiting planets.
Corinna Ghaznavi
Excerpt from the essay originally published in 2010 for the exhibition Curious Lights at the Union Gallery at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario