NELLY KATE — STUDIO ARTIST

Expanded practice in sound treating access as a site for poetic translation.


CONTENTS

01 The Difference

02 nowisthe
03 Nevermind
04 FutureFluid

05 [Untitled] 6 Cylinders

06 I Hear You, But I Can’t Hear You
07 Transistors in Translation

08 ~~~~~”...derelict in uncharted space...”
09 pink moon

10 Into the Ground, Into the Body


STATEMENT

My work is motivated by care and a desire to make space for public imagination. I’m interested in ad-hoc solutions that create a sense of belonging. This can look like on-the-fly audio descriptions, live captions, provisional structures, and rearrangements of furniture.

My materials and methods are reflexive. I gravitate toward lo-fi mechanisms—such as reel-to-reel tape loops, transistor radios, photocopiers, and electronic synthesizers—because they reveal electromagnetic frequencies all around us. Their fluttering textures are like our complex embodiments, sensed differently by every being, from every position, in every moment.

For the last few years, I’ve made a lot of furniture, speakers, and screens with repurposed steel barrels. I like the labor, engineering, improvisation, care, and slowness this requires. I like the body-memory evident in the wear, tear, and filth.  And anyway, I believe our budgets reflect our values and I’d much rather pay people than generate more trash.

What if we have everything we need?


The objects I make set the stage for experiences that invite connection, drift, rest, and a relinquishment of clock time. When all these factors converge, I call that ecstatic magic and that’s what I strive for in my practice.


︎    ︎    ︎


H0ME • BIO • CV • ︎
NELLY KATE 09 — JUN - AUG 2024

pink moon

GREGORY BESON COLLABORATION
DEAR FRIEND BOOKS

pink moon is an ellipsis at the end of a run-on sentence. 

It began as translations of sound waves visualized through suminagashi and video, then grew to include a series of riso prints and stools.

Suminagashi is the Japanese form of marbling in which sumi ink floats on the surface of water and is gently transferred onto paper. The process is inherently fluid in both practice and form. When activated with sonic vibrations, what emerges are silent topographies of sound. 
The projection on the window is a quiet companion to the sound prints. In this piece, Faraday waves dance through a fluid medium, with colors and waveforms slowly changing over time. The prints capture a moment in time, while the video draws out a slow choreography.

In this show, Gregory Beson and I take a humble step toward manifesting the intersections of our separate disciplines through the dynamic range of resolved works alongside gestural and playful ones. We invite reorientation in an effort to defy fixity.

STOOLS—Gregory Beson
AUDIO DESCRIPTION—Jon Tjhia
FRAMES—Madelaine Corbin
ZINES—Enzo Nguyen