Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell’s lecture I must admit was one that has been most interesting thus far. Due to Mitchell’s use of humor that plays on the idea of the childhood imagination, this particular lecture enabled the audience to have a breath of fresh air from the typical contemporary art lectures expected each week.

Another reason for favoring Mitchell’s lecture and works so much is based on the close similarity of how I approach my latest project. Like Mitchell’s idea of the present moment, spontaneity, and cutting to the chase, I am trying to create something different that offers both the audience and myself a breath of fresh air, thus focusing on the idea of the plethora of the cat phenomenon that has grown online. Whilst discussing her works, Mitchell often notes on how the inspiration of her works are often random and spontaneous adventures that she wanted to experience for a period of time that seems to be impossible. For instance, Mitchell’s work ‘This is not a joke’ (2008) plays with the idea of how Looney Tune characters are often seen falling into random holes within cartoon. Mitchell recreates this scene (that would never happened in reality) by using a saw to cut a circle beneath her, which she eventually falls through. This idea of playing with the impossible being impossible is quite interesting and it allows me as the audience to reminisce about the situations that every child wanted to re-enact based on what they saw on cartoons where the impossible was possible through its fictional setting.

However, the only aspect that I would possibly change would be the way Mitchell had set up the lecture. Although it was a great that she did not read off a pre written script, her constant breaking after each sentence was very hard to follow. I would often find myself stopping and collecting what she said as her lecture did not provide a constant well-articulated flow.

Reference:

Kate Mitchell on Artabase. 2013. Kate Mitchell on Artabase. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artabase.net/artist/1181-kate-mitchell. [Accessed 30 March 2013].