Katherine Hymers
Hymers’ work spans video and performance, utilizing the body throughout as a presence and a tool from which to direct an enquiry out to a viewer. Although Hymers continually exposes herself within the work, choosing to be in front as well as behind the camera, she is more concerned with exposing the viewer’s position and complicity in relationship to the work.
Time is a leitmotif underscoring much of the work, heightened by the use of carefully framed, composed images. The videos are captured in real time and often from a single, fixed shot. In much of the work there exists a duration of imperceptible movement, the viewer’s gaze deliberately suspended in relentless stillness. Hymers work plays with the contradiction between the static frame and the life within it, the possibilities that are afforded when the still image is given a duration, when it becomes moving image.
Although any narrative implied by the work is minimal, the vulnerable, intimate qualities of the work issue from the unresolved interplay between the image and the anticipation of being given more than the image. In this respect Hymers is interested in encouraging the viewer’s gaze through such allusion, whilst simultaneously challenging the viewer’s expectations.
Since graduating from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2004, Hymers has continued to develop work using video and performance. In association with Artsadmin, Hymers received mentoring from the artist Franko B in 2005-06, and has had a studio at Wysing Arts Centre since October 2007. She has most recently presented work at the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow; ANTI Festival of Contemporary Art, Finland and NLH Space, Copenhagen.
Hymers has recently undertaken a three-month residency at Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Centre in Istanbul, Turkey.
For further information, please follow the links below:
Axis profile: http://www.axisweb.org/openfrequency/katherinehymers