Kate Haug

Statement 2017

Current broad, underlying themes in my work in my work are history and its multiplicity of perceptions, frameworks, commodification and consumption, and the production and circulation of knowledge, especially the overlapping informational modes of the 20th and 21st centuries. Tangent to this is the role of historical objects, which disappear only to resurface, constantly being reintegrated into popular and pedagogic referral systems.

As part of this exploration, I started making participatory ephemera, analog objects within art works as well as pieces anonymously inserted into the public space. These objects circulate freely, becoming part of a broader spontaneous dialogue among strangers in real and virtual time. Custom match boxes, made for News Today, and read “You Hold Democracy in Your Hands” represent this work.

Another facet of my inquiry revolves around technology and the technologically based economy’s influence on culture, sexuality, communication and our lived, ontological experience of self as new technology has radically altered our perceptions of history, time, space and being.

I enjoy the intersection between popular culture and critical theory. Much of my work sits at this juncture, employing aesthetic forms which are common, disposable or ephemeral by nature. In my films, I use pop and rock music to viscerally express layered sentiments of love, nostalgia, lust, want and resistance. My early work focuses on the representation of femininity and female sexuality.

Trained as a filmmaker, I often work with other artists, through collaboration or commission, to bring a concept or research idea to fruition.