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C102
review
Dublin: Katie
Holten at Temple Bar
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Katie Holten,
It Started on the C Train (detail), 2002,
crochet;
courtesy Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
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Katie Holten's 137.5°
does not explore any new scientific phenomenon nor tread any
new philosophical path. It is an exhibition which demonstrates
the artist's will to actively see and understand the world
for herself.
It started on the
c train is a large crocheted wall hanging which Holten
initiated on the New York subway, continuing the ritual for
three months while travelling around Northern Europe using
just the one stitch. It is significant that the artist has
chosen to initiate the ancient and solitary activity of meditative
knot making in the most modern and populated of places. Synthesising
the primitive and the modern would seem to be a powerful motif
in Holten's work. The centre of the piece is positioned in
a corner of the gallery, from where the web-like form radiates
towards the ceiling, floor and walls. It started on the
c train is described as "just a collection of wonky crochet
doodles," the product of a spontaneous and unconscious exploration
of scientific theory, a mandalic form that seems to symbolise
both a geographical and a philosophical search.
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Katie Holten,
Drawing, 2002;
courtesy Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
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Katie
Holten, 137.5°, 2002;
courtesy Temple Bar Gallery & Studios
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Whatever it was that
started on the c train, it brought her to the wall drawing
137.5°. While crocheting she learnt that most leaves
radiate from the stem at an angle of 137.5°, an e has
repeatedly pencilled this pattern on the gallery walls. The
resulting image resembles an astronomical chart or a molecular
diagram. The marks are quite faint and cannot be seen from
a distance: like its subject matter, it requires close inspection.
Self avoiding walks
installs the artist's desk, chair and working notes with a
piece of transplanted bog from the roof of the gallery placed
on the floor beside them. Holten spent ten days prior to the
show working in this space, and such an installation would
seem to be a signature of her exhibitions. There are some
smaller exhibits, one of which is Corners (from the field
of enquiry). These clusters of crocheted wire flowers
were made as a response to the fallow fields of the EU common
agricultural policy. While they are visually novel structures,
they are unfortunately neither a successful reference nor
an adequate comment on this global issue.
Holten has taken from
the sciences what she perceives as relevant, and explored
these ideas intuitively and unpretentiously without being
tied to scientific vernacular. Although she is concerned with
technical knowledge, a lot of her methods are deliberately
archaic without being reactionary. After she has completed
her innovative and personal process, the artefacts are exhibited,
a record of her investigation. These records manage to be
both archetypal and highly individual, quite literally homespun.
She brings to science what only the artist can.
Katie Holten: 137.5°,
Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, September/October 2002
Catherine Lyons is a film
maker based in Dublin.
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