Artist-in-ATHICA Katlin Shae
May 12-June 9, 2019
Hours for the Public TBD

POM POM: Material / Waste / Video / Sculpture / Weaving

About the Project

POM POM is a multi-sensory, inter-active experience that investigates the possibility of material and questions the role of waste, specifically the single use item in modern society. Through observation and video record the timeline (or life span) of a plastic pom pom was captured at Sanford Stadium in Athens GA during the Fall 2017 football season. Object activation was a direct discovery of intently viewing the spectacle inside the stadium. I noticed when attendees of the game were cheering in unison the pom poms were shaken in the air, moving and pulsating together as a large red mass. When attendees were waiting for this moment of shared excitement to shake the pom poms together they were often fidgeting with them in a lackluster fashion. Upon the end of the game the pom poms were disposed of by dropping them onto the ground, becoming instant trash headed to a landfill. I describe this as the three stages of object activation – the purposeful moment of use, the in between stage of waiting to use, and lastly, the point of abandonment when subject no longer needs object. This pile is a direct result of contemplating the relationships we have to objects in our lives. It embodies many hours of physical work spent picking up poms poms off the ground in the stadium after every home game of the 2017 season. This video serves as an archive of object activation, a psychological examination of human behavior, and a visual metaphor of unfazed attitudes toward mass production, consumption, and endless detritus.

When stacked into a pile, the collected pom poms create a large form; a visceral bodily engagement that recollects past events presented in material memory. I invite viewers to participate in the next evolution of this work with me to reflect on waste reform and the need to re-evaluate our relationship to objects. This project pairs mass manufacturing of single use plastic items with slow work of the hand. Through the labor of weaving, I will transform the pom pom material while contemplating these opposing modes of production. Visitors in the gallery can create with me, together we will react to the pom pom material weaving it into a large communal tapestry during a 4 week residency period.

I break down weaving to its essence by using many types of looms and construction techniques in an effort to expose systems both visually and conceptually, resulting in an array of aesthetically and structurally diverse textiles. Weaving is used to embody time and transform materials. This process is sacred to many cultures possessing a rich history of traditional magic by creating symbiosis between mind and body. Hyperaware of the possibility for momentary entanglements with wonder, I experience the world around me through the act of making, conjuring transcendence during process. My practice aims to find the cross sections between systematic methods and intuitive impulse, conscious vs. unconscious, the hand and the mind, chaos vs. control, learned philosophy and embodied wisdom. The work results in an accumulation of substance and becomes obsessive in it’s excess of material, pattern and labor; all reoccurring themes in POM POM – Material / Waste / Video / Sculpture / Weaving.

About the Artist
Katlin Shae’s work is centered around the process of weaving, intertwining contemporary art with ancient craft. Receiving endless inspiration from the structure and patterns that are carried out on the loom, she is in constant awe of the complexities and possibilities that exist within the grid. Through physical labor and engagement with material she examines time and systems.

Katlin Shae received her BFA in Fibers/Textile Arts from Kent State University, in Kent Ohio and her M.F.A in Sculpture Weaving/Material Studies from The University of Georgia, in Athens GA. She currently lives and works in Akron Ohio. Katlin Shae has exhibited extensively though out the United States in group, solo, and two person exhibitions in locations including The Ohio Craft Museum, The Biggs Museum of American Art, The Georgia Museum of Art, and The Arrowmont Craft School Gallery. Honors and awards include Surface Design Association’s Creative Promise Award for Excellence, Best in Show, Gallery Directors Award, and Complex Weavers Award. She has been published numerous times with inclusions in Research Magazine, Surface Design Journal, Complex Weavers Journal, ColorATL, Fold/Unfold, and Materialities: Contemporary Textile Arts.