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Review of my Confines solo exhibition, at The Lock-Up, Newcastle.
Jill Stowell, page 18, Newcastle Herald, 18.05.2011.
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Performer tangled in hairy situation by
Andrew Taylor February 20, 2011. The Sun Herald, page 26
WARNING: Kath Fries's art may make your stomach churn. Last year's Proliferation featured thousands of feathers erupting from the Gaffa Gallery, invading the space and getting stuck to the clothing and hair of those viewing it. "I'm always interested in how people move through and interact with my installations," she said. "But recently I've wanted to take it a step further than just friendly feedback and the occasional photograph where someone is looking a bit nervous about looking at art."
Fries's latest installation, Clothe the wold and meet the sky, has the potential to cause anxiety in her collaborator, Patricia Alvarez. The artwork consists of hair extensions knotted into netting, in the middle of which will sit Alvarez. For two hours at Gaffa Gallery next Thursday she will sing and braid her hair into netting until she becomes too entangled to move. "I like how you can see through the netting so there aren't really any hidden surprises," Fries said. "But at the same time . .. you feel as though you could be engulfed by it." Fries said Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shallot, with its narrative about a woman weaving, singing and interacting with the world through a mirror, inspired her work.
Alvarez, for her part, has used hair extensions in performance art before, exploring how women adorn their bodies, and used her cut-off dreadlocks to create a Santeria doll, which will feature in the work. "The act of weaving hair has been a prominent dance I have found myself enacting over and over again. It has become a natural progression to also find hair growing in my art practice."
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Canvas - Art and Ideas Feature interview with Kath Fries
FBi 94.5FM Sydney
Sunday 5th September, 2010
Do you have a favourite fairy tale that you were told as a child? Some favourite fairy tales are ones with happy endings, like Thumbelina, but classical mythology, where the fairy tales stem from, rarely had that idyllic, happily ever after ending. Kath Fries has set her eye on cobwebs, bamboo and ancient Japanese mythology. She joined Nell Greco in the studio to discuss her works.
To listen to the interview - download the podcast here
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"Enter a world of fairy tale and shadow play in this delightful new installation by talented emerging artist Kath Fries..." Annemarie Lopez (26/08/10), Kath Fries - Grove. September 2010, issue #89 of The Sydney Magazine (The Sydney Morning Herald), page 89.
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Feathers find their fill in a 'disgusting' room
Andrew Taylor, Culture, The Sun-Herald, page 36, 4 July 2010.
Kath Fries admits that some people will find her room full of feathers "quite disgusting". "They all come from dead birds and it could look quite alarming, like the aftermath of a fox in a hen house" she said. Fries' Proliferation fills Gaffa Gallery in the city with thousands of feathers recovered from an old sofa. "They're not pretty like the ones you find in a boa," she said. "They're a bit more mangled and [have] a lot more history on them." The 30-year-old artist said the installation was an abstract reflection on humanity's destructive relationship with the environment. The feathers, which she suspects are from battery hens, bring to mind birds dripping in the oil still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Feathers will appear to seep from the walls and floors of the gallery, gradually invading the space day after day. Fries suspects the installation will change as the feathers drift outside or get stuck to viewers' clothing or hair. "It's not really what you imagine coming out of the white walls of a gallery," she said. "Galleries are usually slick and controlled. But here it will be chaos." It's a possibility that may not please the gallery's cleaners.
Review written by Andrew Taylor
Photos by Anthony Johnson
view images of the installation Proliferation 2010
Photos by Anthony Johnson
view images of the installation Proliferation 2010
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Sombre and seductive photographs of a thorny subject
Hannah Parkes, Village Voice Balmain, page 30, February 2008.
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Undercurrent reviews, January - February 2004,
McKell Building Public Art Project Sydney.
