Wilkinson, Kathryn (AUS)
Skin
Skin is Kathryn’s fourth entry as a finalist in Paper on Skin™. In 2016 Kathryn won the Betta Milk Major Award $5000 for Tahuna, Ocean Navigator, a piece created in collaboration with fellow papermakers and designers Liz Powell and Dr Denise N Rall.
Of this work, Kathryn says: “I want to create something elegant, with a nod to the extravagant styling of couture designers such as Alexander McQueen and Erte, but I also want it to be very visceral and organic and a powerful carrier of meaning.
This relates to our skin as a metaphor for the story of our lives as it acts as a form of protection but also the carries the marks, blemishes, scars, and wrinkles of a life physically lived. There is also a psychological element to how we view ourselves and others tied up in our notions of beauty. Some things mark us visibly and others are felt.
I have been experimenting with fine Japanese mulberry paper to create multiple layers that are soft but pliable and can be easily torn, pleated, stitched, and reconfigured to express marks, wounds, scars, blemishes, thick skinned, thin skinned, wrinkled skin. A visceral rendition designed to expose the beauty in the ‘flawed’. Not the beauty in pain but in the recognition of the survival and healing. The things that make us who we are. Not all marks are a result of unhappiness but from all parts of life.”
Materials: Fine mulberry printmaking paper for bodice and skirt and frills on bottom edging of skirt. Kozo paper for foundation garment.
More about Kathryn: I work across a wide variety of embroidery techniques from hand and machine embroidery styles, appliqué, printing and dyeing to surface embellishment, basketry and felting in both 2D and 3D forms.
The use of colour and design and different methods of processing designs are an integral part of my work practice. My work is largely inspired by the natural environment, but I also love doing figurative pieces. Exploring techniques and skills based in traditional practices and using them to realise their potential in contemporary embroidery and sculpture, is a passion.
See Kathryn’s winning entry in Paper on Skin™ 2016 here
See Kathryn’s entry in Paper on Skin™ 2018 here
See Kathryn’s entry in Paper on Skin™ 2020 here
See the Work on Film
Photos Credit: Grant Wells Photo