kate mccgwire: braided feather sculptures

‘splice’, 2012 by kate mccgwire mixed media with magpie feathers image courtesy the artist

kate mccgwire: lure all visual arts gallery, london from november 22nd through to january 26th, 2013

presenting her most recent iteration of meticulously fabricated feather sculptures, british artist kate mccgwire‘s will be exhibiting at all visual arts gallery in london on november 22nd, 2012. the work is an ongoing exploration of an unlikely medium, plumage, arranged in elegant cascades – each one probing the concept of beauty and form. her latest project ‘splice’ is defined by a large glimmering braid, an archetypal example of her work’s practice – appealing to emotion and sensorial faculties. much of kate’s work references freud’s ‘unheimliche’ (the uncanny, or, literally, the ‘unhomely’); the notion – to quote freud – of ‘a place where the familiar can somehow excite fear’. embracing material, structure and the artistic discipline,  mccgwire has once again entreated the senses to create playfully sculptural pieces.

detail of image of ‘splice’

image courtesy of the artist

‘slick’, 2010 magpie and crow feathers, mixed media and antique fire basket image courtesy of the artist

‘fine’, 2012 mixed media with crow feathers in antique cabinet image © ian stuart image courtesy of all visual arts

‘crave’, 2012 mixed media with magpie feathers image courtesy of the artist

feather detail of ‘cleave’ image courtesy of the artist