Beautiful news: Aubane is going to introduce you to another artist who was selected for our event  Back to Squishness!

 

If you cannot wait to see the works of this artist, you can click on the following links to discover her website and Instagram page.

 

Katie Hovencamp is an artist coming from the USA. She is a visual arts teacher in college and an amazing cook (her main hobby is taking place in the kitchen). If you are lucky, you might read the family recipe book written by her grandma and guarded by her mother.

But today, our focus won’t be on her culinary talents, but on her sweet and bitter art practice. If you are a greedy animal, you can try to contact her and get one of her family secret recipes (good luck for that buddy). Otherwise, you can read a few questions and answers between A & K.

 

ABM: One of the things I noticed about your work is that you seem to master a broad range of techniques and materials. How come?

 

KH: I don’t want to feel limited by my technical abilities in my creative process, and like to go out of my comfort zone. Every time I work on a new project, I develop the skills I need to be able to achieve it, instead of adapting it to what I am already capable of.

 

ABM: Is your practice project-based, or do you consider your creations as parts of a general proposal?

 

KH: All my creations are coming from the same interest for women rights. My environment, and the different situations I face influence me and are developed in specific propositions. For example, the pandemic and my home isolation impacted my practice. I am presently working on aprons and kitchen tools that can be used as weapons. The show Orange is the new black inspired for those creations, they are a translation of the issues faced by women isolated at home. The pieces might be presented soon in Soft Machine Gallery, during an exhibition titled Domestic disturbance*.

 

ABM: Is the domestic environment, and especially the kitchen, an important source of inspiration and reflection for you?

 

KH: Yes, because the kitchen environment has been associated to women for a long time, and performativity in domesticity is still a pressure for women nowadays.

 

ABM: Another aspect of your work, that also refers to the domestic environment, is your kitsch visual identity. Do you intentionally connect them?

 

KH: Indeed, kitsch aesthetics are related to domestic spaces, and consequently to gender roles. Using kitsch elements has something humorous. The dark humor coming from it facilitates the exchange between the work, its political meaning, and the audience.

 

ABM: Does it mean that humor is one of the essential ingredients to make your work more accessible?

 

KH: Not necessarily, because sometimes the viewers get caught by the humor and the aesthetics, but cannot reach the political message. The ironic aspect is more here to make the audience comfortable, while the other aspects of the work are here to push it out of its comfort zone. 

 

ABM: Disturbing the audience is a usual process in political or activist art, but why do you worry about keeping your audience comfortable?

 

KH: Reality is already disturbing and dark enough, that’s the reason why I want the viewers to access it from a safe space. I would say that the feeling of comfort comes from the visual and technical aspects of the pieces I create: the shiny and pastel colors, the known figures and objects I use, etc.

 

ABM: This aesthetics are also associated to queer artists and queer activism. Do you connect queerness and feminism in your artistic creations?

 

KH: As a female bisexual artist, I question gender roles and sexuality with my work. Our society is slowly becoming more inclusive and willing to question standard roles men and women were historically know to have. Rejecting the binary is important in order to be more inclusive since gender is a spectrum. Feminism and queerness are very crucial to the creation of my work because I wish to bring more equality with my creations.

 

ABM: Do you address your work specifically to people who can recognize themselves in it, is your audience your subject?

 

KH: I try to reach a broad audience, it doesn’t work for me to exchange only with people who agree with me. It’s the reason why I also try to expand geographically, to be confronted with people who didn’t grow up in a similar environment, in other parts of the United States and abroad.

 

ABM: How the place where you grew up impacted your identity and your artistic practice?

 

KH: When I was a kid, I studied in a catholic school for twelve years, where most of the female figures were nuns. There were a lot of pressure and restrictions toward the way we should express our identity, we were taught a very specific and conservative vision of women roles. I also remember fighting a lot with the nuns who were blaming me when I was dirty because of making art. Our appearance had to be controlled (including our body language), we had to wear uniforms.

 

ABM: Do you associate this way of thinking to most of the USA, or do you think it’s a specific aspect of Catholicism?

 

KH: Both, because Catholicism and Christianity are important religions in the USA. Catholicism has a lot to do with rituals and routines. Even though I am fascinated by religions in general (on a historical perspective), they are not really present in my work. The attention I pay to fashion and the extravagant aspect of the outfits I create are the marks of the years I spent in this catholic school (it’s a direct consequence of the imposed uniform).

 

ABM: Do you think of creating your own uniforms and using them as a way to let people express their identity, instead of framing it?

 

KH: Why not, but then I would develop it as an artistic collaboration with other creators.

 

*Due to the impact of the covid crisis, the show might to take place as a solo exhibition in another space.