Kate Tupper: Dynamis

×

Expand

Kate Tupper, "Dynamis," 2022

Dynamis

Artist Statement by Kate Tupper

Kinetic, sensory down-regulating sculptures create psychic sanctuaries. A series of mild steel; invented mythological power objects inviting activation through physical interaction. Formed, fitted, welded, hand painted devices. Kinetic and interactive, composed of mild steel, accentuated with mechanics, resins, liquids, sound, and light; a collection of Enchanted 3 D botanics. Hybrid, cocooned, mysteries. Ethereal obscurities, crustal, barnacle, matrix technologies. Fantastical dreamy components; devices of sci fi myth. I utilize sculpture for modern day storytelling as mythology through history helped humans make sense of their world, I strive to do the same for ours. Several years ago I had a vision and developed a new personal style that had the potential to hold the information I was assembling. Hoping the work would become devices of connection within our place, each other, and ourselves. Imagery can be utilized creating objects that help keep humanity grounded while evolving quickly into a world of technology.

In many stories an enchanted object is linked to transformation, healing, opening, and connection, and often the true power of the object was inside the protagonist all along. Sometimes we just need something tangible to remind us. By building objects that reflect the visual patterns I study. I continue to investigate what it takes to unite our community locally and globally through the creation of a common consciousness a mechanical solidarity through mutual likeness.

I use organic visual elements in an attempt to connect us to the earth, to keep the work grounded and relevant. These details are what I usually consider to be the tangible part of the sculpture the real touchable. I take cues from anything in my world who’s forms fits the story, the feeling I am attempting to tell. The landscape and lifestyles of flora and the geography surrounding us, absorbing their visual information and converting it into fractal geometry based patterns. Wound with symbolism new and old. There’s an under written code in natter. Waves in spirals. A drama to the physical attributes of plants; branches branching, colour to call attention. So often a contradiction of soft pedals and thorny protection my stories are balanced similarly with the dark and the light, tarnished silver, dark romance. Minerals like geography are naturally occurring sculptures and a fascinating catalogue of geometric visuals. Organic bling.

Geometric elements are a nod to technology. Balls of weld represent energy. Wire work suggests relationships within the sculpture such as its systems. It can also represent links to the metaphysical a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses. Technically with this body of work I hoped to explore and to further understand the intricacies of sheet metal. I have questions that I have seen rendered in paper. I continue to be inspired by and regularly relate back to the 1940 book, The Geometry of Sheet metal work by Alfred Dickason. Researching and looking at online paper folding sparks solutions for design challenges. Taking a two dimensional object like sheet metal and convincing it to take a three dimensional form via bends is really interesting, and in folding it accordion style, it gains strength. By crossing bends diagonally, you can start to change directions. Strategically placed, these allow the sculptures to take on complex geometric shapes. Utilizing my brake and exploring the parameters of my new planishing hammer. I have only touched on the surface of where I could take this style.

I have a strong understanding of steel, and a considerable understanding of several other mediums. Sewing and crafting are favourites hobbies from childhood on. I find it fascinating to apply some of the processes and personality of my steel sculpture. Exploring different media accentuates the work I already do with mild steel, creating ‘whole objects’ from start to finish. I find the more I explore the better I get at design and implementation. Often an insight from one medium will spark a solution on another project front. I love steel for its strength and potential for delicacy, I think combining it with different mediums like resin and light removes limits on what kinds of stories I can tell.

Kate Tupper is a Nakusp-born and based sculpture artist. After graduating the ‘C’ level welding program in 2004, the following years working in trades and heavy construction have given Kate a firsthand view of traditional uses of materials. A lifelong love of craft, nature, and ecology influence her method, texture, and composition. Sculpture and storytelling have always come easily to Kate, and her earliest memories are of making things. Growing up beside forest and orchards, on the beach and in the garden, her studios revolved as they do, depending on weather and season. Kate spends her summers as lead to Shambhala Music Festival site’s Art team, designing, facilitating and mentoring large scale multi-media installations. She finds that the juxtaposition of leading a large team in a fast-paced environment and the often solitary process of building sculpture the rest of the year offers a healthy variety of design and execution in two very different situations. In 2017, Kate’s project Heavenly Bodies, a large steel and illuminated resin planetarium, premiered at Revelstoke’s Luna Public Arts festival. It carried on the following year, 2018, to show at Calgary’s Beakerhead as well as Nuit Blanche Winnipeg. Multiple wins and leases through several years of competition at Castlegar Sculpturewalk were building blocks, and in 2017 Kate was recognized by Canada Council as a professional artist in Canada. Public art has been a focus for several years, but recently Kate has focussed on smaller, more intricate pieces with a new body of work, Dynamis.