Kate Bedford
A World Unknown
My project considers the role both grand narratives and mythological narratives have had in shaping our connection to the natural world. The paintings don't form narratives as such, but are informed by them. Narratives, whether mythological, sociological, political or religious, function in a way to navigate our consciousness of time, memory and ontology. In my investigation into mythological themes, I have sought to view the world through a lens that can recalibrate the material world with the mystical. Mythical stories open up a magical way of perceiving space and time, where cosmic elements infuse the everyday; where spiritual and material are not opposed as they are within a rationalistic understanding of the phenomenological world.
The concept of time and memory has been an over-arching thematic. This has led to a consideration of the apocalyptic as an ontological force which has shaped both our pre- and post-modern consciousness. Encapsulating dramatically both beginning and end, the trope of apocalypse forms an ultimate grand narrative. In an uncanny way, this forms a paradoxical sense of knowing and belonging within the story while remaining unknowing of the ultimate end.
In this same sense, my painting practice sits within this dichotomy of both knowing and unknowing.
