The Past Is Singing In Our Teeth
UK based artist Kate McMillan's first solo exhibition in Berlin is a film- and sculpture-based installation exploring the possibilities of storytelling and making in the absence of women's histories. Using imagined and real stories the work proposes how we might begin to create a world anew from the residue of our past. Sculptures are performed in order to hear their quiet voices, remnants are printed on silk, hanging like shrouds from the ceiling. Spell blankets drape the walls like offerings to what we might dare to wish for. A single necklace adorned with children's teeth greets the audience as they enter the six rooms of the installation. Central to the work are two films which follow McMillan's nine-year-old daughter, Georgette, through English landscapes steeped in tradition, folklore and witchcraft, filmed over twelve months, as she cobbles together traces from the past. During the exhibition opening, the sculptures will be ‘performed’ as musical instruments by Perth-based percussionist Louise Devenish based on a score written by Australian composer Cat Hope.
Kate McMillan
Kate McMillan’s work incorporates a range of media including sculpture, film, sound, installation and photography. McMillan is interested in the linking narratives of forgetting and place, often focusing on the residue of the past. Her artworks thus act as haunting memory-triggers for histories and ideas that are over-looked. Prior to this exhibition ‘The Past is Singing in Our Teeth, previous solo exhibitions include ‘Songs for Dancing, Songs for Dying’ at Castor Projects in London in 2016.
McMillan is a part-time Teaching Fellow at King’s College, London where she lectures on the Masters Program in the Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries.
Details
Opening: 8 December at 7pm
Performance: 8 December at 8pm
Exhibition: 9 – 22 December 2017
- Venue: MOMENTUM & Projektraum, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin
- Free admission
- Opening hours: Wed - Sun, 1-7pm