Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Silence Awareness Existence program / JANUARY 2020
Kate Koivisto Wheeler
Australia
www.gothamstudios.org/kate-koivisto-wheeler.html
About
Kate Koivisto Wheeler’s experimental practice is founded in
drawing and painting, and extends across different media
including objects, installation, jewellery, textiles and found
materials. Her work incorporates connectivity and an organic
process of ‘layers’ that develop over time and crystallise
into form, distilling an essence. She combines the abstract
and the figurative, material and conceptual, interior and
exterior, nature and culture. Her work includes both solo and
collaborative projects. Of Nordic and northern heritage, she
currently lives on the south west coast of a large island in the
southern hemisphere.
Snow, stars, sunstones
I arrived with 3 drawings I’d worked on for months, “Edda”
(Old Norse term given to the medieval Icelandic texts
containing Old Norse lore), directly laid them on the slab of
ice outside the yellow house. They were soon rained onto,
then frozen under ice, then snowed onto. I wondered if they
would stay under ice or be released by the end of the month.
Two weeks later they were exposed again, and I took them
back inside and dried them by the heater. They are “Silver”
(begun first), “Gold” (next) and “Diamond” (begun last):
respectively “Past”, “Present” and “Future”, as the 3 Norns.
There is a relationship to human lives, the cosmos, eternity
and infinity.
I made many small drawings (A5) continuing a series in
between abstract and figurative - feeling: and 48 paintings
on small panels the same size. Snow falling on the ground
outside was echoed in the paintings on my desk. And the
view from my window connected with my drawings on the
wall.
At my desk one sunny day, I had an impulse to go outside,
gather 12 stones and bring them inside. I wrapped them in
aluminium, in a way sealing in the light and heat of the sun.
They later led to an outdoor performance, “Sunstones”, in
the snowy stone circle on the last day of the month when
January’s final residents departed. As the North Star is
used for navigation, research says sunstones were used by
ancient Norse to guide them over the ocean when the sun or
stars were covered by cloud.