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Datebook - Seattle Magazine
Our picks of the month's best bets compiled by Chris Clayton, Sean Reid and Kate Kiely:
KATY STONE 1/20/05-2/26/05
Katy Stone's unique works are made up of pieces of Mylar that have been brushed with various types of paints, then cut and layered into dripping constructions that explode with color. They're a must-see for fans of both sculpture and DuPont's most popular polyester film.
ON EXHIBIT: ROCKS, BLOCKS, AND EYELASHES by Emily Hall, The Stranger
Katy Stone at Suyama Space 2003
It's difficult to take an impression from the natural world--the shock of autumn leaves, the unsettling swell of a wave--and give it body in art without leaning on sentimentality. That this is so often the case may have something to do with wishful feelings about nature's gentleness (as opposed to its ruthlessness); think of photographs of the majesty of nature and how they compare to the feeling of the real thing. Katy Stone's current series of installations floats between the alarming and the sweet, though I myself prefer the alarming (like many city people, I don't sustain much awe for nature but occasionally am caught off guard by it).
A triple diagonal row of what look like eyelashes, painted on and cut out from clear sheets of acetate, seems to grow right out of the wall, and the work's shadow extends the reach of the grotesque, groping hairs, an image of invasion rather than benignant coexistence. (The work's title, Blade, suggests as much.) Similarly, White Root--which cascades from the ceiling, gathering and displaying the lights in the gallery--has the potential to overwhelm, either by its innocent-seeming tendency to cloak things or by something more greedy (it brings to mind the predatory potato sprouts of Nicholson Baker's Mr. Potato Head story).
The other three sculptures depend on the beauty of a fragile simulation of nature, and on different forms of shadow and reflection--and the latter is something that's been done quite a bit in this particular gallery, to exhausted effect. A pile of red leaves, some windblown petals, a gush of water--they have an insinuating loveliness, but without the power of the other two. The feeling of nature has as much to do with fear as with prettiness.
NATURE'S SOUL AND SPIRIT MAKE A JOYFUL APPEARANCE AT SUYAMA
By Judy Wagonfeld, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Friday, November 21, 2003
DEGREES OF APPEARANCE: Installation by Katy Stone
It's an ancient story of risky liaisons. Of cool maturity charmed by flaming youth. Of a May-December marriage between fresh and worn. In this case, thanks to artist Katy Stone, the union thrives. When her luminous ribbons of Mylar meet the aging, mellow timbers of Suyama Space, sparks fly. But this match was no blind date. Stone took a patient approach before embarking on a site-specific installation.
Like a visitor to nature's wilds, she listened to the gallery's rugged charisma. She absorbed the room's forest past; let its sage wisdom direct her hand. And like the first lilies of spring, "Degrees of Appearance" emerged cautiously. Gracefully, it flowered in a wedding of flash and solidity.
The four resulting sculptures, like fragile but resilient saplings in a grove of patriarchs, cohabitate serenely with the gallery. Their gestural undulations and eerie shadows cast upon walls impart a palpable presence.
Layer upon layer of strips and shapes painted in Pop Art's vivid hues accumulate and hang seductively, as if courtesans wooing clients. They stir up earthly forces -- wind, water, flora, air and the cycles of seasons. Reflecting light, they illuminate the gallery's dim interior, rejuvenating its appeal.
"White Roots," a ghostly 21-foot froth of creamy white branches, hits the mark with ephemeral elegance. As if escaping from a fairy tale's dank tower, its fluttering filaments career from roofline timbers as if icicles dripping from the flaking whitewash of this former garage. Framed before a frosted Mylar panel, they glisten like a provocative pendant, beguiling bridal veil or lush satiny tresses. Casting shadowy arms, the sculpture spreads like a weeping willow or the air roots of a tropical tree.
"Blade," a whirling dervish, juts from a stark white wall, rising like a sudden spring storm. Spiky strands bathed in inky-blue fly horizontally, as windblown as hair or a flag.
"Red Stream-Petal Cloud" hails autumn with pizzazz. Red Mylar rivulets roil like salmon jumping upstream or leaves scattering across a yard. Above, nestled in an airy cloud, creamy pink splotches float like breeze-strewn flower petals or a swarming flock of birds.
"Watery Fall" shimmers in powdery blue and white liquidity. Spilling over a 12-foot-high partial wall, it oozes onto the floor. Though exquisitely crafted, its realism precludes mystery, making it less enticing than the other works.
Overall, Stone's installation brims with nature's soul and spirit; primeval forces she aims to interpret.
Unlike Stone's previous darker and moodier work, this exhibit elicits nature's tranquil joy and resilience. She leaves human relationships out.
After all, despite what we think, the universe is not all about us. We're mere guests, exploring and seeking meaning. By fashioning a sojourn into a fertile sanctuary, Stone puts us in nature's embrace.
Judy Wagonfeld is a free-lance Seattle art writer. She can be contacted at judywagonfeld@msn.com.
© 1998-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Weather, 2003
A site-specific installation, Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle Art Museum
From the installation:
Katy Stone's work often deals with impressions of the natural and the ephemeral-- those fleeting moments of memory and epiphany. She creates artworks that celebrate the wonder of the natural world and express the range of darkness and light within life. The installation references weather as fact and as metaphor.
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