KultureFlash ::: Artworker of the Week ::: Catherine Yass

ARTWORKER OF THE WEEK #25

My Kylie Collection, 2001
MCA, Sydney, Australia

Additional images

The below interview took place a week before Kathy Temin's My Kylie performance at the ICA (Tue 03/02)

Robin Rimbaud: How do you define what you do? How would you define yourself? And whilst answering this, I'm wondering how much of a sense of autobiography you inject into your work? I'm thinking of your works like Some of My Favourite Things (1997) where you collected together everything from make-up items, a hairdryer and magazines and exhibited them in a playfully bright vitrine in London's Habitat homestore?

Kathy Temin: As an artist I have made work in a broad range of mediums. They have taken the form of objects, pictures, photographs and installations. The work I have made usually engages with the ideas of identity, memory and displacement; I've been consistently influenced by popular culture, art history, suburban and cultural icons. I'm especially interested in where private and collective memory coincide. I have made work using materials that relates to toys or games from childhood and adolescence such as felt pictures relating to the game fuzzy felt. Adolescence seems to be a re-occurring theme or the idealization of it. I have re enacted idealized situations that I didn't experience first hand. My father died when I was a teenager and during that time I often felt displaced. Art and popular culture were welcome escapes into another world. When I first started making work I was combining things together that don't normally go such as minimalism with the sentimental and more recently displaying private activities and obsessions in public spaces and museums. This Habitat project was displayed in the readymade context of a fetishized place of consumption about domesticity and lifestyle. It was ideal to display the used collection of objects from my home, many of which were dysfunctional from a different time, mainly the '70s. One section displayed gifts I had received and another selection was of Australiana, books and postcards either sent to me or collected. For me collections can be seen as a form of portraiture, it is not just about the objects themselves, its also a recognition of your life experiences. In fact, The Habitat project was the first time I displayed a very small section of magazines that I had collected with Kylie on the cover.

RR: That's interesting as I'm currently photographing people's record and CD collections as forms of portraits of the owners. I also recognized that we display our personalities through these objects around us and felt, as a music obsessed person, that somehow they might offer a way of learning something about a person beyond their words, clothes, furniture, styling, etc. As a constant traveler, I was curious how much location has had an influence on your work. I'm just thinking geographically as you have lived in Sydney, Melbourne, New York, France and currently live in London. Have you recognized any shift in your practice that could be related to geography?

KT: It makes sense you would bring that up because the Habitat project came about by categorizing the things I wanted to continue to live with when I moved. I do have an exaggerated relationship with my belongings because of moving around so much. It has been a great experience living in countries as an artist-in-residence but it was also domestically a transitory existence, going to a place either researching new work or have projects to do while in the place so there is some point of reference. When I lived in New York it was in a classic studio apartment and that had its physical limitations on how I could work. I enjoyed the restrictions of it and it actually opened up many possibilities of how you can function in a small space. I had this amazing view of the Empire State Building, which had an effect on my psyche waking up to that every morning for two years. In some ways it felt I was part of the city and watching a Warhol film without having to go outside. Moving around has shifted my focus from being studio based to being able to either work on the move or to work from home. It's given me access to art, materials and cultural experiences that have an impact even though it's not obvious at the time. As you know yourself its normal for artists now to travel for shows and to work on the move. Coming from Australia in some ways it's easier to be in a place for a longer period because of the distance. Being outside of the comfort zone of where you come from has created contexts of working that I would not have not thought about otherwise. Now when I have had a studio, I make use of it in particular ways. For example, I was recently filming some of the performers who will take part in My Kylie at the ICA in the Australia Council studio here in London, and when I had the studio at P.S.1 in New York in 1999 I auditioned American actors to be a pair of koala bears as part of an installation that was a simulated zoo enclosure in the downstairs gallery. Hardly any of those that came to audition had seen a koala in real life so the auditions were based on the fantasy of how a koala behaves.

RR: Yes, in fact I remember seeing this work visiting the gallery at that time and wondering what on earth these koalas were doing! They acted like real zoo creatures in that they seemed so bored and displaced. Looking at the materials you have used I was wondering what your relationship was with contemporary textile artists? Indeed do you feel isolated in terms of trying to extend the role of textiles within contemporary art?

KT: Actually, I don't have any relationship with contemporary textile artists! A lot of my earlier work was made from synthetic fur and felt and I have continued to use felt for many years. I am interested in the resonance of certain materials and how that makes you think of other things. Synthetic fur was a way of referencing the emotional content in soft toys and for me felt is imbued with sentimentality. I was more interested in challenging authoritarian systems of taste, especially when bringing together these materials with art historical references. I have always enjoyed artists whose materiality is prevalent in the works of Eva Hesse, Joseph Beuys, Mike Kelly, and Bruce Nauman.

RR Okay then, but following on from this, what about the role of craft? You still have a very close physical relationship in the creation of works where a lot of other contemporary artists offer no more than an advisory role in the creation of their artworks.

KT: I don't mind the idea of offering an advisory role in the creation of artworks but I tend to want to have a direct relationship with the material. When I've had something made I’ve usually had some hand in it either in having a drawing translated into a different material or having some hand in it afterward and that's more related to a suburban idea of DIY. Initially I was interested in investing the sentimental in minimal structures and I wasn't able to get the carpentry right in order to refer to clean, immaculate pristine surfaces so I went with that. There is a sadness in doing something to the best of your ability but still not getting it right and it evokes all sorts of conversations relating to peoples expectations of taste.

RR: How about the position of consumerism in your work? From works like Habitat for Leisure and Arrange Your Own Room back in 1999, where you were exploring notions of a sicties-style modernist design aesthetic, through to this Kylie project (My Kylie Collection), it seems to have played a continuing role.

KT: Growing up on the other side of the world, magazine culture played a large part in information about the rest of the world. Magazines tell you what to buy and how to look and this is constantly changing. I wanted to make work about the things that I wanted to own and the recognition of that desire. Consumerism is so much about hope, projection and desire. Rather than read about some of Vogues favourite things to buy for the month, I began making some of my favourite things as collages, photographing everything that I owned. Kate McGarry who was then organizing the Habitat projects came to my studio and said the collages made her want to see the objects in their real scale so I ended up showing the real things. Making pictures based on a wish list, combined with my own things is the subject for these felt pictures called Arrange your Own Room (1999). The felts pictures are sealed in plastic where you can't arrange anything -- it was an attempt at using a childhood material making reference to adult lifestyles. There is so much fantasy, idealization and projection in consumption that are also some of the traits in being a fan. Branding and consumption are intertwined. Collecting is about the desire to consume and the glass pictures, Frozen Moments (as part of My Kylie Collection) were a way of wanting to translate the desire of the consumerism that surrounds fandom. It's not just the physical and literal consumption; it's the emotional investment, the hope, the narcissm and its addictive qualities. Glass is a beautiful, evocative, reflective and fetishized material. The colors were chosen because they resembled chocolate and ice cream to emphasize the eye candy quality that I felt was part of my own participation as a fan. Translating everyday images from the media that were throw away into something precious that no one else had is part of the fantasy of being a fan.

RR: And fandom brings me to the project you seem to have explored in the greatest detail over your creative lifetime -- Kylie! There is obviously an element of obsession and almost fetishism about this work and it's relationship to the concept of celebrity and even voyeurism. What are you feelings presently about this project?

KT: Since I was 18 I have been a Kylie fan and as an artist I am interested in Kylie as a vehicle and as a cultural icon to talk about fandom that I have participated in. For me fandom embodies the idea of hope and involves heightened emotions that include projection, fantasy, cultural identification, emotional and physical distance, consumption, imitation and a sense of being part of something that we have already talked about. To come back to magazine culture there is an inherent voyeurism in women's magazines and especially in the weekly gossip magazines and my collection is an exaggerated reference to that. Particularly in Britain the media is extreme. Its pure escapism, obviously not for those being written about. In magazines we are often shown how to emulate a celebrity of whom Kylie is often referenced. So imitation is a part of branding and the look alike is this strange phenomenon. My Kylie Collection has been an ongoing project since 2000. It began when Sue Cramer who was then a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney approached me to commission a work about being a fan as part of the international show Art/Music: rock, pop and techno that included Georgina Starr, Christian Marclay and Sonic Youth. She knew of my collection as we had worked together before but my original response was that I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing because it hit a raw nerve the admission of my fandom, in a museum! Yet that was part of the point. It was a blurred and in some ways an awkward idea, ending up being something I wanted to make sense of, if that was at all possible. A teenage girls bedroom was the most ideal environment to display a real collection combined with works that referenced the visuals and the fantasy of being a fan, images of Kylie as Barbie in felt where her clothes are a source of recognition and memory, with mirrored trees and stars. The publication A Magazine (as part of My Kylie Collection) was an extension of the collection with stories, essays and visual responses. It started out as a fanzine but became more of a catalogue. I invited people that had an interest in collecting or popular culture as well as friends and anyone I had a conversation with about Kylie. When you have a recognizable icon that's been in the media for so long, you have an immediate dialogue with what they do and what they represent. It is so varied according to where people were coming from, so the range of responses cross between private and collective memory, as you know when you wrote about first hearing the song "Can't Get You Out of My Head".

RR: It's true. Hearing that pulsing melody and suggestive beat in the shower at home one morning, with no idea as to who the artist was, was a very potent memory for me. Everything spoke of a hit on first listening and little did I know the ways in which this song would extend out over the following months. This takes us naturally to talking a little about the event you are presenting in London next week.

KT: Well, the event, My Kylie, at the ICA and the work surrounding it is the last part of the project. Making a work about an identification that began intuitively, since I was 18, ultimately changes your relationship to it as you would hope. I am still interested in the notion of identification and have also been in the process of inviting 100 people to write or respond visually about who they have identified with for the next publication. Getting back to My Kylie, the night is conceived of as an art event where, singers, artists, imitators, dancers, performers, interested and brave people will have their chance to perform their own version of a Kylie song and bring different interpretations to her songs over a 15 year period. Its a continuation of the ideas we have already spoken of in relation to fandom and celebrity using songs and performances, readings and DJs. There is an existing dialogue when someone imitates or interprets a well-known artist where all sorts of things can happen in that process. I'm interested in that space of interpretation even when things don't go according to plan. It's not karaoke, and it's not a conventional talent contest although there will be elements of both. There are imitations but many of the performers who I met through an ad I played in a theatrical newspaper have brought their own interests and references to popular culture and identification to the songs. Some are singing acappella, some are dancing, whilst others have made their own music. Most people are singing songs they identify with or knew they could have fun with. The participants in this part of the night will be amateur and professional, coming from a wide range of ages and cultural backgrounds. One of the reasons that I wanted it to be at the ICA, other than the context of the crossover between art and performance, is because it is where I first spoke to Kylie! Importantly too, some of the contributors to A Magazine (as part of My Kylie Collection) will be involved in the night. The publication brings together people that would not normally be associated with an obvious interest in pop that includes yourself, Matthew Collings, Jemima Stehli and Matthew Higgs but everyone that contributed has some relationship with ideas surrounding and fandom or celebrity expressed in their work. Andrew Wilson who is Deputy Editor of Art Monthly and one of last years Turner Prize judges will be one of the judges along with artist Jessica Voorsanger who makes work about the nature of celebrity culture often focusing on the peculiar dependency between fans and celebrities. She will choose 5 of the performers to be part of her "Fan o Gram" performance during the night. There will be a surprise guest judge who will help choose one performance to perform later in the evening and they will receive a cash prize. Polly Borland and yourself are reading short texts and Georgie Hopton, Georgina Starr, Coco Career, Hysterik Monster and even myself are Djing!

RR: Well, thanks for the warning! By the way, how would you feel if I started my own "My Kathy Collection"?! [laughs]

KT: Very funny! I would be interested in what the things that you collected meant to you.

Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) is an artist whose restless explorations of an experimental terrain have won him international admiration from, among others, Bjork and Stockhausen. As well as producing compositions and audio CDs, his diverse body of work includes soundtracks for films, performances, radio, and site-specific intermedia installations. He has performed and created works in many of the world’s most prestigious spaces including SFMOMA (USA), Hayward Gallery (London), Pompidou Centre (Paris), Corcoran Gallery (DC, USA), Tate Modern (London) and the Modern Museum Stockholm (Sweden). He doesn't drink alcohol, tea, coffee, smoke or watch TV but he does have an addiction to white bread and milk.

Image © the artist