Katie Eraser
Between Painters interview with Katie Eraser (she/her)
We are lucky enough to catch Katie before she departs Australia ahead of many exciting adventures, and hear about some big projects coming up in the year ahead. Katie Eraser is collaborating with Mia Boe for the June 2022 exhibition in Melbourne/Naarm at Backwoods Gallery. Katie is represented by Studio Gallery Group in Melbourne/Naarm.
Image Courtesy of Katie Eraser
About Katie
Katie Eraser is an early career, multidisciplinary artist currently working on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation. Predominantly working across painting and sculpture, her work explores the relationship between the social experience of desire and destruction, in relation to mental health and the queer identity. Using surrealist sensibilities, Eraser’s work delves into the indistinction between the real and the imagined, and the confusion between the animate and the inanimate. Creating fantastical works facilitating an exploration of the physical reality vs the psychic reality of our perceptions and projections. Since 2017, she has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Australia.
Eraser is currently studying her Masters of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne. (First year complete Dec 2021). She has previously completed her Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice from the Miecat Institute (2020); and holds a Bachelor of Design from Billy Blue College of Design (2007).
Eraser is represented commercially by Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Image courtesy of Katie Eraser.
How would you describe your current practice?
I have just finished up my first year of the Masters of Contemporary Art at the VCA, it’s been a year of sustained energy and focus. I really wanted to break down the processes I came to the course with, the mediums I used and how I worked, so that I could build them back up again. By exploring new ways of working and new mediums, like switching to oil, I feel like my current practice is really about being explicit in the themes I am exploring, but also the capabilities of paint and how I can employ it to tell my story. Themes I am intent to delve deeper into, as I feel I have only just started to unpack their relation to each other are things like the intersection of queerness and mental health as well as surrealism and the uncanny.
Tell us about your subject matter and your process
My work is largely focussed within abstract figuration, I begin my paintings by working on collages made from found images, this part of my process is about exploring composition, experimenting with different levels of abstraction and cementing play into the process. From here I use the collage like a sketch and draw the image onto canvas, I don’t use projection, I like to do each process by hand as it embeds line and form and feeling that feels more authentic for me. Conceptually as I am making work about my lived experience I am drawn to the human form and faces, with the repetition of mouths and eyes symbolic in my work as these become the core components of the figures I depict, and the emotions or feelings I am seeking to express.
What are you working on now and working towards?
Right now I’m taking things slow, as I’m preparing to move to the UK in January. 2022 will be pretty busy, so I’m letting myself have some downtime which feels really good. Next year I will be working towards two shows, one in Nipaluna/Hobart with Mia Boe, and a solo at the end of the year with Studio Gallery in Gadigal/Sydney. I also have two amazing artist residencies in Europe to look forward to, one in Sardinia, Italy and one in Lisbon, Portugal.
Tell us about your collaboration for Between Painters
The invitation from Charlotte to be included in Between Painters came at such an interesting time, Mia and I had met in the MCA course and soon after decided to collaborate on a show for Penny Contemporary down in Nipaluna together. It was only months after conceiving that show that Charlotte got in touch to invite us to collaborate on works for Between Painters. It felt like a great opportunity to work on a couple of paintings while I was still in Naarm, these two paintings are actually the last works I made before leaving, and it was special that we were able to share the space to work on them alongside one another. Mia and I decided to each begin a painting, based on the theme of ‘Home,’ we then created scenes on the canvas and left space for the other person to contribute to the narrative that was playing out. It was a challenge to balance out the first layer of the painting, and also to know how much to add to Mia’s when we swapped the canvases to finish the works. Aesthetically and compositionally the works began at pretty different places, but I think they ended up somewhere really complementary.
What challenges/excites you about this collaborative project or collaboration in general?
Collaboration has always been a pivotal part of my art practice, working with other creatives on a project always leads to new ideas and generates new ways of working. Of course there is a challenge inherent within that process, but ultimately it has always been something that has offered really rich and interesting roads for exploration within my work. I love inviting the unknown into the process, and relinquishing control over where the work moves to once it leaves the studio. It's a way to look at my work in a new way, and I’m really proud of what we have made for this show.
Image courtesy of Katie Eraser.