kathleen fox
My work varies in medium - drawing, painting, objects, video and installation - but is consistent in it's interest: an exploration of the fluid realm that is the unconscious.
To this end I use texture and found objects as means of attempting to bypass rational thought and immerse myself in (or be immersed by) a space that is elusive and intangible and yet as pertinent as the visible.
Play, chance and accident have a crucial role in this process, as does automatism. The thrill of the unpredictable is the matrix of this journey. There is an element of randomness in the nature of the execution of each medium and technique that allows an intuitive process to lead the way.
The narratives that surface and evolve form part of an unfolding personal mythology.
The work is informed by formative years in South Africa, African and Greek mythology and readings in prehistory.
EVENTS & RECENT WORK
oil on board 56.5 x 61cm
A short video with David Greenslade, curator of the exhibition Perfectly Frank at the Volcano Gallery in Swansea 17 October-7 November 2023
MEDUSA'S DREAMTIME
2023
Duration: 4.18mins
Created by merging a series of still photos of finger-drawing in beach sand on a sheet of glass placed over black paper.
Accompanied by the sound of breathing/sea.
A year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These drawings from March 2022 were my initial response - nothing has changed - yet.
DOGS OF WAR I: RELEASED
charcoal on paper 59 X 116cm
DOGS OF WAR II: THE TURNING
charcoal on paper 59 X 84 cm
DOGS OF WAR III: END GAME?
charcoal on paper 59 x 84cm
oil on board
53.5 X 66cm
SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS 2021-22
Four works created over several months as a response to a collaboration between myself and New York poet, writer and playwright Allan Graubard.
He suggested we work on the subject of the symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants. As part of our collaboration we agreed that complete freedom was essential for this to succeed, freedom to respond to each others work as well as our own individual research with no expectations on how this exploration and investigation would develop.
DREAMING THE FOUND
Exhibition at Farleys Gallery, East Sussex BN8 6HW
July 15 - September 05 2021
Farleys House & Gallery
the home of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose
WORK DURING THE TIME OF COVID 2020
When I knew that my exhibition at Farleys Gallery was going to be postponed, and that a pandemic was upon us, I thought I'd make a 3D anti-Covid fetish piece based on the magnificent mummified Nile crocodile at the British Museum. As Museums were closed I had to rely on the internet for any research. At 12 feet it's the BM's largest mummy. A fabulous beast, it's covered in wax and resin that over time has turned black. And most extraordinary, it has 30 mummified hatchlings on it's back.
My croc was planned as something dark in colour, magical, mysterious and mythological. What emerged as the strange COVID times permeated every social aspect of our lives, was a crazy carnival creature that could be worn in a very active social celebratory dance or procession.
During that summer of 2020 I experimented with pouring acrylic binder, PVA and paint directly onto canvas and ideas once again centred around areas of ancient myth and prehistory.
Medium: fluid acrylics on canvas.
In Portal II & III, the texture created resulted in images of a cave-like space with undecipherable signs and symbols on the walls.
In the series Archeology of the Unconscious it led to a surface structure reminiscent of fossils or the bones of mythological beasts embedded in the land. A reflection of the inner cartography of a longed for land mass in a state of ancient innocence.
The Women's Art Library (WAL) App How to Make An Archive Travel? led by Dr Ana-Maria Herman is up and running.
It features seven women artists and artworks from the Women’s Art Library located in the Special Collections and Archives of Goldsmiths Library, University of London.
A special ‘participate’ feature in the App allows you to help bring more attention to the work of women artists (within and beyond the archive), as well as the Women’s Art Library itself, by making your own ‘WAL art slide’ which can be posted on various social media sites (links on the App).
Funding: Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths’ Research Development Funds (CIG) and Goldsmiths’ Public Engagement Grants.
WAL App: https://appsto.re/gb/Fqn7gb.i
This App requires iOS 9.0 or later, and is compatible with iPhone (5s or later), iPad and iPod touch
For more information: howtomakeanarchivetravel.wordpress.com
Oil on Board 90 X 58cm 1990
Mixed Media 2012
Australian paper bark and fluid acrylics on raw canvas 130 x 90cm 2016
Exhibition DETOUR: CYCLISTS DISMOUNT
Venue: Eugenio Granell Museum-Foundation, Santiago de Compostella, Spain.
6 April - 28 June 2016
Photographs of exhibition and Private View: Lorena Rodriguez, Granell Foundation
diluted oil paint, charcoal and sometimes collage on paper. 2007
charcoal and collage on paper 2014, 2016
2008 Dye transfer, pencil and collage on paper
2015 mud, paint and collage on paper
and Rock 'n Roll 2000 frottage and collage on paper
1998 Observational drawings of a spiny dog fish used as a springboard for a narrative that unfolded in pencil and collage.
View to darkened Gallery 4 where video Bag Angel can be viewed
video Shards of Memory
Bag Angel
gallery 4 without flash photography