London-based artist Kate MccGwire has a unique form of art. Her material of choice? The molted feathers of pigeons. She uses these feathers in great numbers to create vivid pieces of artwork. The process is painstaking but the outcome is brilliant. Kate creates such intricate patterns and designs; and it really gives her pieces an uncanny flow and movement. I would love to see one of her exhibits in-person and maybe sneak a touch…
THE ARTIST
– Kate MccGwire’s work asks questions about the very nature of beauty
– She’s intrigued by the possibility of envisaging beauty as something more complex than merely what delights the senses: beauty can be about a problem; it can be something that repels you or makes you question the status quo
– The idea that it is a cultural phenomenon, susceptible to argument through the creative process, fascinates her
INFLUENCE
– Much of Kate’s work references Freud’s ‘Unheimliche’ (the uncanny, or, literally, the ‘unhomely’); the idea, to quote Freud, of ‘a place where the familiar can somehow excite fear’. It also embraces artistic notions of the Abject
– She will take an everyday thing or idea that is intrinsically discomfiting and, by re-framing it, entice the viewer into re-examining their preconceptions and prejudices – cultural, historical, and personal – about the everyday
– The viewer’s response is visceral, the impact immediate, the ideas triggered resonating in their mind somewhere beyond rational interpretation
PATTERN RECOGNITION
– Organic patterns, forms and materials have an instinctive draw; work may look determinedly abstract to the naked eye, but by using a spiral or circle, or a familiar material, the viewer’s gaze is lured inward, as if into a ‘field of attraction’, only to be repulsed or even menaced by the associations that unfold once ‘inside’
– At the same time the scale and delicacy of the work reinforce the potential for awe and beauty in the unconventional
THE FEATHERS
– Intrinsic to her method is the collecting and sorting of materials from hundreds of different sources over a period of months, even years
– In turn, pieces evolve intuitively as if out of the subconscious, the language evocative rather than purely illustrative
– As the work takes shape, a new, playful reality emerges, so that the object itself becomes a sort of prism, refracting the layers of meaning and cultural associations buried within, the quantity of materials used sometimes deliberately overwhelming, as if charged with a power and ambition beyond the reach they possess when seen in isolation
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
Education
2004 MA Sculpture, Royal College of Art – Awarded Distinction for ‘Hair’s-Breadth’, dissertation on the use of hair in contemporary art practice
2001 BA (Hons) Fine Art, 1st University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham
Awards<
Winner of the ‘Heart of Glass’ Award 2008
Short-listed for Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award
Residencies
2008 (July) Art Omi International Artists Residency, New York
2006 Shenghua Art Centre, Nanjing, China
Collections
Saatchi Collection
Shenghua Art Centre, Nanjing, China
University College for the Creative Arts
Various private collections in UK, Middle East and USA
ALL IMAGES AND INFORMATION COURTESY OF: KATEMCCGWIRE.COM
Be sure to check out Kate MccGwire’s official site for information on current and upcoming exhibits and even more fantastic artwork and sculptures!
If you enjoyed this article, the Sifter highly recommends: A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE: FLOPPY DISK ART BY NICK GENTRY
