Statement

I am interested in the potential of everyday objects to communicate with us, through us, and to help us communicate with each other. We use objects to process our experiences, emotions, and relationships. Our daily routine depends on an assortment of items, and through the strain of our dependence on them they become secondhand, ignored, and discarded. Although they become forgotten, they remain imprinted with our memories: vintage kitchen items that I remember my grandmother using, garage and garden tools from the time spent with my parents as a child. These recollections are triggered by the visual information of material and color. Mirroring our posture, they speak about vocation. Connecting and fitting together, they mimic human contact. Instead of acquiescing to their last stage of usefulness these items embrace their beauty, captivate our attention, and incite our memory and imagination. As I discover the messages embedded in my objects, they transform into vessels of communication, each one bringing their own story and culminating into a larger abstract message. I gravitate towards items that have or had a function - they are not purely decorative. Once active objects in our hands, they continue to speak about our habits, and by giving them a new purpose they can communicate both their history and their future simultaneously. I give myself freedom to change the materials and alter them in a way that is unexpected yet pleasant. The transformation seems natural and goes unquestioned, leaving the viewer to explore the significance and relationship between the objects.

Biography

Katie Kameen is an artist and educator based in Indiana. She received her BFA in 3D Studio from Eastern Illinois University and her MFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Galerie Marzee in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Talente 2017 in Munich, Germany. Through her practice, consumable objects that would have been ignored or discarded in the last stages of their lives are resurrected. By giving them another chance, the items preclude expiration by becoming interactive sculptural objects. Kameen serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Earlham College.

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