Kate Stewart is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne working primarily in spatial installation and expanded painting. Her practice is engaged with notions of instability, disruption and dissonance.
the fall, 2023
The fall is an installation comprised of a family of objects around the newspaper work; a 6.3 metre-length hanging work made from The Australian broadsheet newspaper, blackboard paint, Boncrete, glitter particles and held together by stainless steel pegs. Working with partially erased sheets of newspaper to create a monumental hanging installation in the form of a fall, I’m activating the metaphorical qualities of light/sparkle and darkness/void in relation to this material. Through the application of black-board paint, glitter particles and glue, the prosaic newsprint is transformed into a more mysterious surface, both absorbing and reflecting light. Resembling a constellation, a glittering rock formation, or a waterfall, the work cascades through the space extending to a height of 3.5m and running along the floor. The front face is painted, while the back face reveals itself as newsprint, taken from the international and financial pages of the weekend paper.
In the fall I'm exploring ideas around the fragmented and hierarchical forms of information dissemination in the digital age, systems of knowledge, enlightenment, obsolesence and decline. Reflecting shifting power structures and the breakdown of truth and trust in institutions, I’m interested in the newspaper representing a particular moment in time and extracting meaning from the act of erasure.