In Praise of Shadows Series

Categories: Photo

A dark grey rectangular piece with the pale grey and white silhouettes of bunches of May blossom and leaves. There are interference of overlapping ripples in the water surrounding the blossoms.

Gallery 66, Folkestone, Kent, UK

"Prayer | Weeds Altarpiece" 2024 Unique photograms framed into an altarpiece format, with folding wings. 71cm x 43cm

“Simple fragile beauty yet emanating understated power.”

John Connolly

The Exhibition

Co-exhibited with Marc Christmas, Co-curated with Laurent Delaye Gallery

26th October - 3rd November 2024

Kate's new work was made in response to an introduction to the minuscule beauty of weeds. Her intention for this new body of work was to provide for the viewer the miraculous detail found in the tiny pockets of wild nature, both in flora and in water. The exhibition combined these new works alongside older artworks that portray the natural phenomena found in the exploration of light and shadows, using the geometry of the cube as an expression of human logic or systematic reasoning.

This exhibition also marks a new, bold step to evolve her work onwards from the triptych format, to actually create an altar piece, based on Christian and Buddhist religious structures, but instead of religious figures, weeds are the focus.

"The photographic process presents to us the stopping of time, by the nature of the flash of light recording the shadows; a blink of an eye, the death of movement. This characteristic of the medium of photo in turn informs the work itself to a focus on death, encouraging the concept of beauty found within decay and an awareness and hopefully communication of the unstoppable cycle of life and death, light and dark, of light and the resulting shadows." Kate Beaugié 2024

“Staggeringly beautiful works.”

Stephane Nebbia

Gallery of In Praise of Shadows Series

Long black framed triptych, with a white silhouette of a dandelion in the middle and then on the two narrow outer flaps; the white silhouettes of various weeds. It has two long, dark hinges running down between the three panels.

"Prayer | Weeds Altarpiece" 2024. Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, archival mounted onto Diasec, framed under UV non-reflective glass. 71 x 43cm

A long, thin black rectangle with the white silhouette of a delicate weed with two flowers and a few leaves.

"Weed no. 1" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, framed under UV non-reflective glass. 30 x 10cm

Two black, framed rectangular works which sit side by side with about an inch gap between them. The images in the works are black and have the white, flimsy silhouettes of a branch of dead cherry blossom. The branches are positioned upwards so they are comparable to the position of a a ballerina on points. The composition of the two works is that they almost mirror each other.

"Nature Morte" 2023 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, archival mounted onto Diasec, framed under UV non-reflective glass. 2 x 31.5 x 38cm

A long thin black rectangle with the white silhouette of a tiny, delicate weed.

"Tiny Weed no. 1" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, framed under UV non-reflective glass. 20.5 x 7.5cm unframed

Three black panels with the silhouette of white dead bluebells sprouting up form the bottom.

"Dead Bluebells Triptych" 2024 Unique photograms on resin-based Ilford photographic paper, archival mounted onto Diasec. 100 x 40cm

A dark charcoal grey, square work that depicts the fragile, yet intensely detailed white and grey silhouettes of a weed. The roots of the weed can just be seen at the bottom of the composition. Some of the leaves curl with such delicacy and defined detail that inspired awe. There is a gentle undulation of the watery surface of the black surround.

"Minute Miracles" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper. 20 x 20cm

Long, thin charcoal grey piece with the white silhouette of a sead-head of a dandelion coming up form the bottom about the third of the way.

"Behold | Dandelion" 2024. Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper. 15 x 40cm unframed.

"Raindrops & May | Stebe Albini's" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper. 19 x 25cm

"Spring rain | May blossom and raindrops" 2024. Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper. 19 x 25cm

Dark grey rectangular piece with the pale grey and white silhouettes of bunches of May blossom and leaves. There is a quiver of moment in the water surrounding the blossoms.

"The rain is stopping | May blossom and raindrops" 2024. Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper. 19 x 25cm

A rectangular piece, mostly dark grey with the white silhouette of the edge of a hand holding a spindly weed which seems to be dragging water, creating a myriad of black and white water patterns, including interference.

"Scherzo | Flora Through Water" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, archival mounted onto Diasec. 40 x 50cm

Black and white wave or vibrational patterns, arching across the horizontally rectangle piece, depicting wave-like patterns dissipating into the paler distance.

"Wave | Vibe" 2019 Series no.1 of 9, digitally reproduced from photogram, Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Diasec mounted under acrylic. 73.5 x 50cm

A square, dark grey background peppered with fluffy, circular bunches of the white silhouettes of cherry blossoms and a couple of branches and petals included.

"Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Square" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, framed under UV non-reflective glass. 40.5 x 40.5cm unframed

"Shadow of gold cube and blossom triptych" 2018. Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, archival mounted onto aluminium, framed under UV non-reflective glass.

A tall set of three rectangles, one above the next, with a thin half inch gap between them. The image on the panels works as one and is of a crisp, white square floating in the top black space. From the white square there is a seeming projection of grey foggy light beaming down from the seeming square aperture. It widens as it shines downwards, like a beam of light coming into a square aperture of the ceiling.

"Long shadow of gold cube | Summer" 2019 Unique photograms on resin-based Ilford photographic paper, mounted onto aluminium. 50 x 124cm

A thin black wood frame surrounds a horizontal rectangular work with a wobbly thick line down the middle of it. The line separates the darker left side to the paler right side. Up close, one can see that the wobbly line is actually the edge of water, captured. On the darker left side, you can just detect a fine tidal line of water too and ta drag back towards the center divide.

"Dark Tide" 2017 Unique photogram collage on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, framed under UV non-reflective glass. 36 x 53.5cm

The edge of a white cube who's pale grey shadow goes away from the bottom of the square towards the right hand corner. The work has a white border and the artist's signature and the title of the work can be seen written in pencil at the bottom of the piece.

"No. 2 Cube 2022" 2022 Photograph on Ilford Fibre-based photographic paper, Edition #2 of 3 Variations. 13 x 19.5cm unframed

"Order vs. Chaos" 2024 Unique photogram on fibre-based Ilford photographic paper, framed under UV non-reflective glass.

“Absolute perfection in execution, process and beauty."

Zoe Stevenson

Exhibition poster

“Exquisitely careful gaze on the natural world translated into delicate and thought provoking works."

Lennox Morrison

To see the collaborative aspect of the exhibition with Marc Christmas and Laurent Delaye Gallery and to view a filmed tour of the exhibition, please visit In Praise of Shadows Exhibition page.

Thank you to Arts Council England for the DYCP grant that supported the making of this new work.

Artworks

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In Praise of Shadows Series

Gallery 66, Folkestone, Kent, UK

The Exhibition

Gallery of In Praise of Shadows Series

Exhibition poster

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