Katarina Head

My current works revolve around the exploration of amorphic landscapes which delve into themes of figuration, phantasmagoria, the interconnectedness of nature and the relations within our bizarre yet beautiful existence. Through the use of collage and painting the mediums begin to morph, merge and separate into one another; perception is blurred and limbs begin to wander.

I am intrigued by the element of chance which is prevalent within the process of painting. The central element of chance is taking one thing out of context and placing it into another context, showing how meaning is fixed to a site and how meaning is shifted when the location is changed. The result is free association: what does the subject mean in its new place? For me, the use of chance and free association is an important part of my process. I work with small pieces of most usually ambiguous segments of collage which hold visual information in which I expand the painting from. These pieces of collage act as a seed within my working process, allowing a boundless and therapeutic process of expansion and morphism within the painting process. I work with imitation and repetition of colours, textures and patterns whilst also using the paint to create visuals that explore the possibilities of an alternate existence beyond the photographic constraints.

The possibilities of exploring organic forms and existences is seemingly never ending, the living world is undeniably complex and the vast majority is still unknown to most of us. This provokes possibilities of creating strange worlds, those hanging onto reality by the thinnest of threads; biomorphic forms allowing one to play with ideas of fantasy and fiction, configurations of complex matter which question our understanding of our own living reality and this natural world which can be so seemingly alien. I thoroughly enjoy using paint in the exploration of surfaces- from fleshy figurative matter morphing into textural earth born material embrace the unpredictable possibilities of an internal gaze; reflected by a process that embraces chance, error, and vulnerability whilst exploring the interconnectivity of structure and identity to our physical surrounding.