We interviewed Kate Sully in our publication “Abstracted” surrounding the concept of abstract. Visit the publication here.
Can you expand on your experience at the Fremantle Arts Centre and how it sparked the beginning of your largescale abstract painting?
Being awarded the DYCP funding from the Arts Council allowed me to have 8 weeks in a studio surrounded by art and artists so was a very special environment. I arrived there with a few art materials and digital images but no paint. I just started cutting up the images and collaging/ drawing and then felt I wanted to start painting on to the work. I had lots of white walls so could build up large pieces and the freedom to experiment was amazing and the work just poured out of me. I realised I could create shapes and forms that told a story and `I have developed that spark ever since. Being brave and changing the painting through assemblage and painting gave me a new language to express my ideas.
What about the digital images of the brain and the abstract visuals first captured your interest and how did they influence your work during the residency?
The brain imagery and other digital images gave me a beginning and a way to develop and to explore how colour, shape and form can become my language and a way to see differently.
You say that the residency inspired a “new language” within your practice. How do you describe this language and what does it mean creatively?
I have always been a mixed media artist and the residency gave me the freedom and confidence to challenge my practice and see things differently. It was almost like the work was waiting to happen but needed that space as I literally walked in to that white empty studio and began experimenting g and loved it. The new language is exploring shape and colour through abstraction that can express my ideas about I think. Breaking out of the traditional frame we use for painting allows me to express a new ways to look at the world.
How do you see the connections between creativity, brain function and how we perceive the world? How do you incorporate these connections into your practice? What is the thought process behind this?
I like to think through may collaborations with researchers around dementia and brain function that the connection between the brain and creativity is that it is possible to see the world differently and express those challenges through abstract work. I am interested in the other worldly and that there are other ways to be and to exist and to be important to understand. My thought process is to push boundaries in my work to exp.ore the unknown and the possible and abstract process allow that to happen.
How do you hope that viewers will engage with or interpret your artwork?
I hope viewers are engaged through the scale and colour in my work and are challenged to think a bit differently and also to consider what the shape and form mean and why the paintings are not a stable form but more precarious and balanced.
Where do you see your practice evolving in the future? Do you have any projects upcoming that you would like to talk about?
My work is evolving all the time as I feel I still have lots to do and learn in my painting practice. I am currently working on smaller work and still wanting to an achieve the same intensity and rhythm in my work. The ideas are now exploring ways to use the characters and forms I have developed into new landscapes and to develop further my technique and palette. I am keen to create more sculptural pieces that inhabit a 3D world of abstraction and will be working on that in 2025.