Kate Dorrough

I’m a multi disciplinary artist based in Sydney. Throughout my art practice I’ve has worked with and around the idea of the landscape, specifically the river. My work explores the river as a totemic and symbolic essence, it is a testimony to the ecological significance of water, the river and the iconic value of river systems. Exhibiting primarily in painting and hand built ceramics my work is a conversation between paint and clay, with its inferred language of layered painterly calligraphic mark making. Recently extending my practice to incorporate installations with textile, video and sound components, drawing my conceptual basis from literature, theatrical and historical sources.

The river is a source of fertility, a provider of water and renewal. Kandos historically an industrial town, water was used in the manufacture of cement, a weir blocked the natural flow of the Cudgegong River. This work acknowledges the significance of local waterways, releasing and bringing the river into the town of Kandos. Man-made artificial constructions mimic the natural; textile hangings evoke a theatrical river wonderland, video with voices of the community discuss the ecological significance and river experiences, and participatory theatrical river costumes are offered; whereby we can all become active performers and caretakers of the river.