KATHERINE POWERS

Initially plastic bags attracted me near my studio in Chinatown. I saw orange red bags bright in the sunlight with the color of the contents showing through. Here was packaging, an outer surface, a container. It made products appealing, it protected and transported what was inside. When we are finished with this packaging we drop it. It tumbles around under our feet, and elsewhere. We foul our nest, but we are in love with our excesses. All of nature recycles. What have we dropped that might be useful? Garbage is such an abundant source of materials. I want to reverse the flow, take a mass produced discard, put it through an Alchemic process and make it into something unusual.

Phases of the Moon 3 add to drawer
Coil add to drawer
Porous Cup add to drawer

In this body of work I start with photographs I have taken, often of older work. I then augment the images with collage, sewing, painting and drawing. I aim to have the mix of techniques blend and blurr the boundary between two and three dimensions, inside and outside, large and small. I think about how we experience, perceive and understand the world.

I live and work in New York, my studio is in Queens, NY. I also teach and maintain a long term Shiatsu practice..