Kathy Mackey

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2024 - Finalist

_{[Image courtesy of the artist and Lorriane Pilgrim Gallery]}

Artist Statement

In this work, Mackey continues to exploit the similarities and differences between analogue and digital mark making on and with paper. Aqueous Drawings 1 also alludes to the physical and chemical relationships between water and paper - given that the former is so overtly implicated both in paper’s production and ecological practices associated with paper’s commercial production both within and beyond the making of visual art. 

This research considers the visual possibilities of what was originally a series of en plein air drawings, by purposefully immersing and manipulating the original works by hand within a contained space of water and filming the outcome. By allowing the fibres of the paper to be disrupted and to soften and fold back on each other within a narrow depth of field, Mackey creates a more abstracted depiction of the original site.