ARTIST STATEMENT

My work weaves together photography and performance in an exploration of memory, trauma, and the body. Photography holds a tension between what is seen and unseen, and I approach image-making as a process of questioning and reconstructing reality, circling unanswerable questions and haunting experiences, in order to connect beyond my own lived experience.

Trained as a dancer and singer from an early age, I draw on the body as an expressive medium of its own. Playfully and rhythmically, I photograph and film myself in precarious physical states, often recreating memories and dreams. My images and videos hover between private interiority and voyeuristic gaze, activating the viewer as a participant with me.

My live performances and light-based installations are natural extensions of my photographic practice. I approach live performance as an act of image-making, incorporating stillness and a quiet focus. My light-based installations attune viewers’ bodies to the physiological and emotional effects of light and space, creating somatically-immersive visual worlds. Inviting viewers into such spaces, my work asks how we can more deeply situate ourselves in our own lives and in our capacity for healing.

BIO

Kat Bawden (b. Chicago, IL) is an artist, educator, and curator in Chicago. Kat holds an MFA in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she was awarded the James Weinstein Memorial Fellowship. She has been an artist-in-residence with Prairie Ronde, ISSP Latvia, and Artists in Public Schools. Recent performances and exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the International Center of Photography, EXPO Chicago, the International Museum of Surgical Science, the Design Museum of Chicago, Roots & Culture, Iceberg Projects, and others. She is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Her work has been featured in Artforum, Der Grief, Lenscratch, Chicago Reader, Chicago Sun-Times, and others. Before becoming an artist, Kat studied political philosophy and environmental science at the University of Michigan and worked as a community organizer and teacher. In 2023 she started Murmuration, an experimental art space and artist residency.

Contact: bawdenka@gmail.com // Instagram // CV