Kate Mitchell

Velvet, stuffing, thread, silk, pearls, gravel

112cm long x 90cm high x 6cm deep

Inner Child Work is a soft sculptural piece dedicated to reconnecting with your inner child. One letter has a bandage, another hides bits of gravel under silk, symbolising the hidden bruises we carry, and another is adorned with velvet hearts and pearls, representing the wisdom gained from committing to this therapeutic journey. Each letter is a different colour, creating a warm, comforting presence that feels like it could reach out, give you a hug, or wipe away your tears.

This work invites you to imagine a world where every leader, politician, and CEO has reconnected with their inner child and makes decisions with the well-being of children in mind. How different would our society be if care and compassion were the true measures of success? Inner Child Work encourages you to cozy up to this idea.

Image 1: Install at Chalk Horse

Image 2: Install with Phil James

3 m long x 1.26 m high

Giclee print on archival paper

Things Observed In The Space Between Two Full Moons is an artwork comprised of 30 x A3 ink works, with pictorial descriptions forming an accompanying poem on A4 paper.  Each work represents a day and depicts an object or moment observed by the artist in her immediate surrounds between the full moon in January and the full moon in February 2024.  Mitchell observed that each object stood out in some capacity though out the day, (either due to humour or poignancy), delivering a message, and drew it later in the studio. Collectively the work presents as a visual calendar, highlighting aspects of parenting, art making, housing stress and the potency of following intuition.

Cycling through and identifying points on an emotional wheel - be it frustration (bogged ute), anger (spilt milk), contemplation/reflection (tarot), purging/cleansing (fire) and ideal outcomes (playing the harp in the nude in the garden), and recognising that these emotional spaces can be visited multiple times every day.

Digital print on fabric, felt, pins

190cm wide x 154cm high

digital prints on watercolour paper

20 units, each 30 x 21cm

The spirit of a rose was channeled to answer 20 questions posed by curator James Gatt which relate directly, personally and conceptually to the exhibition’s premise.

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The past amasses constantly. How we remember and participate with this evolving archive of time and events, and their subsequent products, inscribes itself in our configurations of the present and future.

‘a rose is a rose is a rose’, a group exhibition curated for Sydenham International (12 May–3 June, 2023) by James Gatt, includes new and historical works by a group of Australian artists that address the gallery’s central ethos of “restaging.” The exhibition title is borrowed from Gertrude Stein’s poem Sacred Emily, and embodies the nuance of iteration through the image of the rose, countering sameness with reinvention and stasis with mutability. The rose motif carries through the exhibition as a vehicle for remembering, drawing on shared and personal histories, including memories associated with curator James Gatt's grandmother’s rose garden. Exhibited works by Janet Burchill, Mitchel Cumming, Marco Fusinato, and Kate Mitchell refer variably to pre-existing works by other artists, thus opening historical dialogues and illustrating diverse ways to participate with the past. Cited artists, including Rose Nolan, Joseph Beuys, and Gertrude Stein, appear in ‘furl’, the exhibition’s accompanying publication, alongside poems and excerpts from scholarly texts apposite to the exhibition’s premise.

Install images: Felipe Olivares

I Am Working On It was commissioned by For You And Your Customers for their Melbourne office in early 2023. After an initial site visit, the project resulted in a series of thoughtful responses to their office environment, drawing on existing screens, using the kitchen space and thinking about how art in office spaces can be playful and engaging.

The central ink work portrays the numerous ways in which artists work - a reminder that how we imagine others to work is often not how they work at all. The neons were inspired by Albert Einstein’s doodles found in the margins of his notebooks and a limited edition run of tea towels were made for the kitchen.

1. Messages from the Web, I

2. Messages from the Web, II

3. Messages from the Web, III

Ink on paper

Transferred to Giclee print on archival paper

29.7 cm x 42cm

A series of three ink works, resembling oracle cards or portals, convey a concise message about acknowledging growth through awareness and breaking repetitive patterns.

Flying by

Getting Caught

Seeing the lure

And giving it naught 

High Definition Digital Video, 16:9, audio

95 minutes 11 seconds

Edit: Gotaro Uematsu

Open Channels is a single channel video, taking the form of a conference call with the spirit realm. The artist collated a list of 83 high volume Google searches relating to questions on life and its meaning, reflecting Australia’s national existential interests throughout 2020 and 2021. The work considers the way in which the internet has usurped the augur, in that we turn to this ephemeral network with our most difficult, personal and mundane questions, in search of answers, predictions and direction. Seeking answers from beyond the data algorithm, the artist worked with channellers from around the world, resulting in 9 specific spirits providing wisdom, insight and guidance to our Earthly predicaments and queries.

The Communication Deck is an online oracle. It offers a single card reading that will help you get in touch with your higher self. Approach the deck with a specific question or simply an open mind.

The Communication Deck is ready for your consultation.

https://togetherinart.org/hl-kate-mitchell/

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The Communication Deck is part of ‘Hyper-linked’, an exhibition for the digital realm, presenting new projects by seven contemporary Australian artists. Each artist is alert to the almost paradoxical fact that we are experiencing mass disconnect in an age of hyper-connectivity.

Like her peers, Kate Mitchell examines the role the internet plays in shaping our lives and the ways in which we communicate, bearing witness and paying tribute to our networked selves.

Curated by Isobel Parker Philip, senior curator of contemporary Australian art, AGNSW, and supported by the Tindale Foundation.

To see more visit 'Hyper-linked' at togetherinart.org

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The Communication Deck is comprised of 29 cards .

Interactive online oracle deck, copic ink on paper, text, adapted plug-in.

An Art Gallery of New South Wales Together In Art New Work 2020

All Auras Touch is a snapshot of contemporary Australia revealed through the process of photographing human energy fields, otherwise known as auras. Taking the main occupation list from the Australian Census as the starting point, artist Kate Mitchell aims to photograph the aura of one person for each of the 1,023 recognised occupations.

Using electromagnetic field imaging equipment, participants of All Auras Touch will have their aura portrait taken by the artist. Each aura portrait will then form part of an expansive installation presented by Carriageworks. All Auras Touch reminds us that we are all energetic beings made up of the same matter.

Project commissioned by Carriageworks.

Image: Zan Wimberley

13 minutes 13 seconds

Film and Edit: Gotaro Uematsu Sales person: Sarah Easterman Demonstrator I: Nurit Ophir Demonstrator II: Kate Mitchell Testimonial I: Aimee O’Keefe Testimonial II: Daniel Mudie Cunningham Testimonial III: Reynold Toepfer Sound: Aidan Roberts Fabrication: James McCready

Working It Out is a parody infomercial selling a new in home work out system which uses weighted domestic objects. The objects take on a duplicitous nature as power, strength and agility are gained through performing a sequence of guided actions.  While the intention of these objects may seem to be clear under the shiny smokescreen of the infomercial, things are not quite as they appear.

To what end is this covert acquisition of power and strength aimed? Who is it ultimately for? And why is it fulfilled in this manner away from certain watchful eyes? This quiet accumulation of strength taking place in the domestic space, upon further consideration, takes on a more political even urgent tone. This is a covert call to arms. Working It Out uses the facade of the infomercial to waltz through the front door, whilst slipping through the conceptual backdoor yelling “It’s Time To Take The Power Back”.

Working It Out, (exercise routine), 2019

9 minutes 2 seconds

Copic ink transferred to archival watercolour paper

29.7 cm x 42 cm

Working conceptually with Japanese inks, Mitchell describes the ongoing ink series as a ‘super slow fade out’, with the original document eventually fading away. Mitchell captures the artwork in it’s most luminous moment, scanning and transferring it to archival watercolour paper. The observer views the back of the work, never the front. Mitchell states: Through experimentation, I found this warped version of the world, as the ink seeps through the paper, to create an eerie effect, sufficiently summing up a feeling of peering behind the shiny and sure facade of our surrounds.

This suite of inks extends concepts explored in the video Working It Out.

Digital Video, Sound

17 minutes 32 seconds

Film and Edit: Gotaro Uematsu

It’s A Sign invites the viewer to release the rigidity of the always think positive mantra and embrace the flexibility of emotional agility.

Walking an imagined tightrope, the artist unscrambles ten self help idioms as swiftly as possible while sticking to unspecified rules.

In the attempt to complete the task as perfectly and as swiftly as possible the artist makes an ever growing, glorious mess along the way.

Supported by Lyon Housemuseum.

60cm x 60xm

Lambda print

Photographed by Christopher Morris

coloured pencil and print on watercolour paper 
15 x 20cm each (48 in total)

This Artwork Exists In Your Mind is a work about possibility and hypothetical potential. Instead of an artwork as such, each text work stands in for an artwork to come. Created through the help of an artificial intelligence, an online script generator, which sourced its components from three texts; one academic, one poetic and one factual, the texts represent an artwork not yet realised. The hand-coloured pencil work brings the real hand of the artist back but it is still in a sense once removed. 

High Definition digital video, 16:9

17 minutes 42 seconds

Film and edit by Dominic Kirkwood. Photographic stills by Danielle Zorbas

For this work, Mitchell enlisted a hypnotist to induce her into a sub-conscious state and prompt her to respond to a selection of statements that she had earlier provided. Initially approaching the session with a high degree of cynicism, the artist was later astounded that she had indeed been coaxed into a subliminal state. In the work, Mitchell physically enacts various prompts related to art history, critical discourse and her own practice, as if playing a game of charades in a slumberous state. 

Set of 50

12cm x 17cm, Type C digital print

Photographic stills by Danielle Zorbas

For this work, Mitchell was physically thrown in front of a fast shooting camera capturing various physical postures and contortions as her body moved through space. Collectively they present as a type of physical alphabet, individually they reflect the nimble and reflexive responses required of artists to their ever shifting situations and environments.

High definition digital video, 16:9, silent

24 hours

Film and edit by Bianca Willoughby. Set build by James McCready.

In 24 hour real time video In Time the artist clings to the hands of a human sized clock. A functional timepiece, the artwork references being ‘on the clock’ and is an absurd examination of time. Through it we are reminded to be attentive to its ever constant passing.

neon, transformer and hardware
30 x 140 cm

What The Realisation That This Thought Is An Artwork Looks Like, 2015

neon, transformer and hardware
30 x 140 cm

Install view at Gertrude Contemporary, 2016

Image: Christo Crocker

30cm x 30cm

Digital print

The shards of an accidentally broken mirror were collected, painted, scanned and rearranged in the quest to reverse the bad luck accrued.

High definition digital video, 16:9, silent

47 seconds

Film and edit by Danielle Zorbas. Set build by Garth Knight.

High Definition digital video, 16:9, silent

40 second loop

Film and edit by Danielle Zorbas. Set build by Alexandra Clapham

In Beyond Setting Suns the artist jumps into and through representations of perceived perfect moments, destroying the fantasy and disappearing into the darkness beyond.

14cm high neon + transformer

Installed at Chalk Horse Gallery Sydney

and Bus Projects Melbourne

7 channel video installation

Film and edit by Bianca Willoughby

Set build by James McCready

59.4cm x 84.1cm

Digital Print

Photography by Christopher Morris

Dotted through Sydney’s Inner West are an array of mysteriously tiny parks. Often sited on housing blocks or in industrial sites, these minuscule public spaces are puzzlingly small and sometimes under-utilised by their local communities.

Some Extra Luck was a temporary site specific artwork which utilised one of these tiny parks in Erskineville Sydney and was part of Micro Parks, a project presented by Performance Space in Association with Sydney Festival, 2013.

Some Extra Luck was a participatory work which presented a fantasy situation. For one weekend only, this tiny park was populated with an abundance of four leaf clovers which participants could pick and take with them. The coordinates of the end of the rainbow ended right in your neighbourhood.

Traditionally four leaf clovers are known for their mythical properties, in that they are thought to provide the finder with good luck and wealth.

Social behaviours reveal our continued interest and beliefs in looking for luck in the way in which we buy lottery tickets, scratchies, consult astrology, have lucky stones, clothes, rituals etc.

Some Extra Luck played on the idea that luck can be found anywhere and opportunities exist in unexpected places.

Partially unravelled Kilim rug

120cm x 180cm

Install view, Artspace, Sydney.

Photo: Silversalt photography

Single channel video, high definition, portrait orientation, silent

2 minute loop

Film and edit by Hugo O’Connor. Set build by Garth Knight.

5 channel synchronised video installation

High definition digital video, 16:9, silent

Filmed by Zoe White. Edit by Hugo O’Connor. Set build by Garth Knight.

This 5 channel video artwork, Fall Stack, documents the artist descending through a series of five shop awnings. The installation is configured as a column of monitors so that the artist seems to slowly, repetitively and endlessly plummet. 

Install view, Artspace, Sydney

Photo: Silversalt photography

Single channel video

High definition digital video, 16:9, silent

26 minute loop

Film and edit by Hugo O’Connor. Set build by Garth Knight.

Install at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Single channel video

High definition digital video, 16:9, silent, 6 minutes

Film and edit by Hugo O’Connor

A log was dragged from where it was cut down by the local council, to its destination, the gallery in which it was displayed.

The paperbark log was dragged 7.9km and took 1 hour and 42 minutes to complete.

It was installed at Anna Schwartz Gallery Sydney as part of Social Sculpture curated by Charlotte Day.

Single channel video, standard definition, 16:9, silent
19 minutes 38 seconds

Film and edit by Brett Brown
Framed newspaper advertisement from The Sydney Morning Herald

Public projection

Single channel video

High definition digital video, various proportions, silent

20 minute loop

Film and edit by Hugo O’Connor. Photographic stills by Christopher Morris. Lighting Andrew Ward.

Window projection at Kadist Art Foundation, Paris 2010

38 minutes 17 seconds

Digital print on archival watercolour paper

12cm x 15cm

Small Time Genie, 2010

Digital print on archival watercolour paper

12cm x 15cm

Single channel video, standard definition, 16:9, audio

5 minutes 30 seconds

Set build by Marley Dawson