About

Kate Beaugié

British, B. Dover 1975

Kate Beaugié’s work is an investigation into the sublime character of natural phenomena. She employs the physical manifestations of the elemental; including the phenomena from water, fire, sound waves, silver (gelatin), light and the resulting shadow. 

A main subject being explored by the artist is our primal, human experience of the cycles of the sun's light and other cycles found in nature. She attempts to display the phenomena of nature directly, providing a form of truth. This is achieved by using actual light or other natural forces directly in the making of the work. The transient nature of life is also being considered; often expressed by the use of blossom as a metaphor for this truth.

Kate studied sculpture at Glasgow School of Art in the late 90s. It was being in the more northern latitude of Scotland that she had the realisation that the variation of a person's location on planet Earth, specifically their latitude, alters their amount of light exposure from the sun. The term light sculptor or light artist was adopted from this realisation, as a description to her practice and as a way of describing her manipulation of light and dark in space through multi-disciplinary mediums. 

The contrast between states has been a continued theme in her artistic exploration, including the relationship between the geometric and the naturalistic curve, perhaps representing the human being’s relationship to nature, mechanism as opposed to natural flow or even seen as order versus chaos. Finding balance between two or more forces is her perpetual task.

Influences include Japanese and Chinese culture, especially Zen and Taoist philosophy. In 2001, Kate took a train overland from the UK to China and onto Japan, chasing the cherry blossoms. This experience inspired her obsession with everything Japanese. It is also possible that spending her formative time in the Mackintosh Building of the Glasgow School of Art introduced the square motif into her visual language, which Kate extended into the cube, as a 3D receptacle of light. 

Her practice also combines with sound and music to form curated Music & Light Symbiotic Events. These events have included working and collaborating with a series of internationally renowned classical musicians and placing them and their music into specific light and water installations, to create a symbiotic happening for the experiencer.

For example, in the project APPLIED PURE, she introduced the harpsichordist Medea Bindewald playing JS Bach as well as other composers, to the mathematicians at the University of Oxford, whilst they watched live water projections around her. In another project BEETHOVEN ON THE BEACH, Kate placed the Sacconi Quartet directly onto the beach in Folkestone and crowds listened to them play Beethoven’s Opus 131, whilst the tide rose and the turn of the earth was recorded by a simple chalk line drawn by the artist.

Kate’s work can be seen in the permanent collections of VAULT 100 at The Ned in London, curated by Kate Bryan, which includes 92 of leading British female artists and at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford as well as the Hampshire County Council’s Contemporary Art Collection.

CV