Collection:
Katie Belcher
Katie Belcher
"I am interested in how we process experience and build memory—specifically, how layers of memory accumulate to create fictional structures. I aim to explore this process and also to imitate it by forcibly conflating images in a single composition or sequence of works. My large-scale charcoal drawings make significant use of erasure and layering. Using my own experience, found objects, and museum specimens as a starting point, I use gestural and naturalistic drawing approaches to develop an abstracted composition. Having come of age in a “Knowledge Economy” I question my own lack of everyday knowledge—specifically agricultural, building, and domestic. My drawing practice stems from my examination of these unfamiliar spaces, objects, species, and processes.
The Faisan series is an ongoing project based on plucking a pheasant without instruction. Alternating between charcoal and eraser, I repeat the gestures from the plucking process directly onto the drawing surface and the result references the physical subject—feathers. Reenacting the gestures involved in the plucking was an earnest attempt to become more familiar with the process. However, physically recollecting my gesture not only mocks my inexpert hand, but also reinforces any mistakes through repetition and exaggeration. Faisan as a project aims to merge the performance of the process faisant (the doing) with the subject faisan (pheasant)," Katie Belcher.
Originally from Ottawa, Katie Belcher made her home in Nova Scotia since receiving a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She now resides in British Columbia where she is the Director and Curator of Access Gallery. Belcher’s drawings have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent monumental works such as En faisant (HERMES, Halifax, 2015) and In time’s furrows (Queen Street Studios, Belfast, 2013) were drawn on site. She has received both provincial and federal grants, and participated in residencies in Canada and Europe—most notably the Canada Council for the Arts studio at the Cité Internationale des arts (Paris, France, 2012). In addition to her artistic practice, Belcher works as a curator and arts administrator. She directed Eyelevel Gallery, an artist-run centre in Halifax, Canada. She was also one of four managing artists for HERMES artist’s co-operative gallery. Belcher was previously President of the Board of the Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic (AARCA) and sat on the Board of The Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference/La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (ARCA).
The Faisan series is an ongoing project based on plucking a pheasant without instruction. Alternating between charcoal and eraser, I repeat the gestures from the plucking process directly onto the drawing surface and the result references the physical subject—feathers. Reenacting the gestures involved in the plucking was an earnest attempt to become more familiar with the process. However, physically recollecting my gesture not only mocks my inexpert hand, but also reinforces any mistakes through repetition and exaggeration. Faisan as a project aims to merge the performance of the process faisant (the doing) with the subject faisan (pheasant)," Katie Belcher.
Originally from Ottawa, Katie Belcher made her home in Nova Scotia since receiving a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She now resides in British Columbia where she is the Director and Curator of Access Gallery. Belcher’s drawings have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent monumental works such as En faisant (HERMES, Halifax, 2015) and In time’s furrows (Queen Street Studios, Belfast, 2013) were drawn on site. She has received both provincial and federal grants, and participated in residencies in Canada and Europe—most notably the Canada Council for the Arts studio at the Cité Internationale des arts (Paris, France, 2012). In addition to her artistic practice, Belcher works as a curator and arts administrator. She directed Eyelevel Gallery, an artist-run centre in Halifax, Canada. She was also one of four managing artists for HERMES artist’s co-operative gallery. Belcher was previously President of the Board of the Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic (AARCA) and sat on the Board of The Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference/La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (ARCA).