New art exhibit features videos, interactive art

Artist showcased in New York, San Francisco, uses cross platforms

Kate+Gilmore%2C+a+New+York-based+artist%2C+uses+different+media+platforms+like+video+and+steel+fabricated+cubes+in+her%0Aexhibit+Kate+Gilmore%3A+In+Your+Way.+The+exhibit+has+been+displayed+in+several+museums+before+coming+to+WSU.

Kate Gilmore, a New York-based artist, uses different media platforms like video and steel fabricated cubes in her exhibit Kate Gilmore: In Your Way. The exhibit has been displayed in several museums before coming to WSU.

MADYSEN MCLAIN, Evergreen roots editor

The Kate Gilmore: In Your Way exhibition has a new home at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art from now until Dec. 22.

The solo traveling exhibition will feature several works of art that cross media platforms.

There are nine videos that are performance-based and a new piece that welcomes the public to use a sledgehammer to make their mark on five steel fabricated cubes, said Kate Gilmore, the art­ist behind the exhibit.

“I want the audience to engage in the piece, physically and emo­tionally, and I want to remove myself from the work,” she said.

After planning for a year and a half, the exhibit will be open to view at the museum during busi­ness hours, said Ryan Hardesty, curator of art and exhibition for WSU.

“Gilmore certainly satisfies what we are looking for,” he said. “She is a strong woman artist who has a history of being an active feminist. She is making progressive, forward-thinking work that we think needs to be seen on this campus.”

The exhibit started at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and made its way to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

“This exhibit has taken many years to produce,” Gilmore said. “It is a solo shot of newer and older work together.”

To kick off the new exhibit, there will be a gallery talk, tour of the artwork led by Gilmore and a performance from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m Thursday.

There will be ear and eye protection provided so audience members can participate in the interactive part of the gallery, with a reception to follow.

“There is something symbolic about starting with these geomet­ric cubes then, through asserting our will upon them, we are push­ing these forms into an organic, forgiving form,” Hardesty said.

WSU had to revamp its tech­nology inventory with new pro­jectors and monitors to display the work appropriately because Gilmore’s exhibit is video art, Hardesty said.

“One of our exhibit goals is that we show a diverse range of art so that any given student that may be here for up to four years can experience a wide range of approaches to art,” he said.

Gilmore began her career as an artist when she completed her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2002 at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since then, she has lived and worked in New York.

Gilmore has had her art­work displayed in places like the Everson Museum and Museum of Modern Art, both in New York, and the San Francisco Rose Art Museum.

“She represents a cutting-edge artist that is working progres­sively on social issues that are of pressing attention today,” Hardesty said.