KATE MCCGWIRE
b. 1964, United KingdomKate MccGwire (b. 1964) is a British, London-based artist who spent her childhood growing up on the Norfolk Broads. MccGwire’s early memories of this distinct landscape, dominated by its wetlands, serpentine waterways and the wildlife that lives along the region’s waters, form the foundations of her practice, which is inspired by the cycles, patterns and dualities of nature.
Taking feathers as her primary medium, Kate MccGwire goes through labour-intensive processes of collecting, sorting and cleaning her materials to create muscular, writhing forms reminiscent of Classical sculpture and creatures from mythology. These abject structures explore dualities of aesthetics, being simultaneously seductive and repulsive; form, being simultaneously organic and abstract; and movement, appearing fluid yet being static. Through her practice, MccGwire celebrates feathers, which are commonly shed or discarded, as the medium through which she articulates enigmatic anatomies that explore physical and introspective space.
Speaking on her use of feather as a metaphor for what she terms ‘the duplicity of nature’, Kate MccGwire has said, ‘My work is inspired by the water forming incredible patterns that are there one second and gone the next. Everything is fleeting on the water, it is beautiful but there is danger and treachery underneath the surface. I’m intrigued by that dichotomy.’
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