Kate Pszotka
Artist Lecture at Mills
Friday 14 November 2008
Unfortunately I entered the artist lecture late (apologies- didn’t mean to be disruptive) so I missed Kate’s introduction about where her work had originated and some of what she said about her work in undergrad. What I immediately identified with and was curious about was her exploration of place identification and attachment, as those are themes with which I am constantly preoccupied as I move about the earth.
Kate expressed her interest in objects that you move from place to place with, but that have no meaning outside of the sentimental significance that you attach to them. To get at this idea, she made a piece that spelled out ‘HOME’ with casted and mounted spools of thread. Interesting. It struck me how so many of us can ponder many of the same themes and yet pursue them and conceive of them so differently.
Kate was also very interested in mapping. An apt artistic vehicle for one dealing with place. One of the projects she showed was an Oakland murder map, in which she had posted a series of fluorescent-colored dots that marked out the murders that had occurred in Oakland in 2007. It wasn’t finished, as was true of a lot of her work. Also something with which I could strongly identify. Kate had a lot of cool ideas, all of which seemed to be about three steps away from being fully executed and realized. I know such territory well. It reminded me of the importance of following through on ideas, because I kept wanting to see more of what Kate was getting at, since the ideas were very compelling. I think the lecture was interesting precisely because she seemed to be fleshing out a lot of her ideas. I’d like to see what work she makes after the presentation and how she chooses to complete her mapping projects.
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