My work examines ideas surrounding identity and it’s construction, desire, sexuality, the heternormantive male gaze and the possibility (or not) of becoming something else, something outside of these confines. I am interested in how these ideas form systems that are imposed upon us all from an early age and continue throughout our lives. I begin with one made object, what I would call a sculptural costume or body intervention. From this I have a starting point for videos, installations and performances. This is a process that like the body, is always in a state of flux . It is a process of becoming. I am deeply influenced by my past career as a professional dancer and many elements from my experiences in the theatre echo in my present work. I see the two as inextricably linked.
“Becoming Birdgirl” is a performance that I devised initially with a metronome. At first it was all I could do to stand up in the the hoof like shoes. Gradually I learnt to walk in them with the help of the sculptural installation around me. And so the performance possibilities grew, involving endurance and illustrating the efforts involved in maintaining a position, my gendered position, wearing the shoes made of plaster and the wig, made of steel and fake hair. The delicate negotiation of balancing and not falling made more difficult by not being able to see. The mirrors beneath my hooves doubling my effort, making me disappear into an infinite repetition of reflections of the feminine subject. The video of “Becoming Birdgirl” shown as part of the performance, becomes yet another repetition of the precariousness of maintaining my gendered position.
more about Katy…
My work examines ideas surrounding identity and it’s construction, desire, sexuality, the heternormantive male gaze and the possibility (or not) of becoming something else, something outside of these confines. I am interested in how these ideas form systems that are imposed upon us all from an early age and continue throughout our lives. I begin with one made object, what I would call a sculptural costume or body intervention. From this I have a starting point for videos, installations and performances. This is a process that like the body, is always in a state of flux . It is a process of becoming. I am deeply influenced by my past career as a professional dancer and many elements from my experiences in the theatre echo in my present work. I see the two as inextricably linked.
http://www.katyhowe.com