Blog Post: Katharina Fitz

In this blog post, NC Alumni Katharina Fitz introduces her new sculptural installation 'When Seams Become Audible', currently on show at One Thoresby Street, Nottingham, with who we host one of our national studio bursaries.


^{'When Seams Become Audible', One Thoresby Street, Nottingham}

My body functions as a tool or machine, continuously moving materials; shifting and dragging matter. As a sculptor I am constantly presented with different challenges in the balance between gravity, volume, mass, material properties, weight, scale and context. I love how both proximity and physical contact during the making strengthens the relationship between the objects and my body.


^{The body as tool. Photo: Adam Grainger}

Once finalised, the works begin to interact with the architecture and challenge our understanding of how we experience space and everything that comes with it. Sometimes it’s the work that activates the space and other times it’s the environment that activates the work.

By drawing connections between the objects, the viewer becomes the thread, stitching together the associative elements that echo back and forth. I import studio arrangements and objects of process into the gallery, bringing the intimacy of the artist’s studio to the audience. The corporeal objects feel as if they are still in motion or ready to be animated. In leaving marks and traces of process exposed, the viewer is drawn into an exploration of the works’ making.

^{One Thoresby Street gallery converted temporarily into a studio.}

'When Seams Become Audible' is a celebration of the uniqueness and beautiful roughness of its site. When situating the works I thought about the installation as a symphony: “which are the prominent notes that I want to foreground and where do I want the space to be heard?" All of the elements present form a melody, one that is played out as the space is explored.

'When Seams Become Audible’ is currently on view until 31 October at One Thoresby Street, Nottingham.