KATHRYN GOHMERT

The medical studies of the real and painful effects the human brain registers while experiencing social rejection, are well documented. Our very social human brains register isolation from our herd as pain in a way that is extremely similar to how our brains register physical pain.

These drawings document varying forms of isolation and mark the hope inherent in attempting to make connection.

The calling blind series is inspired by the metaphor and practice of calling and hunting wild birds.

calling is a metaphor for the basic instinct driving our human story: our need to make contact. To be seen, heard and validated is a core force behind the most vulnerable habit of our species: our practice of crying into a void, waiting for a response. It can be witnessed in each message we send, prayer we speak, golden record we send into space and tweetstorm we start; a call waiting for its confirmation.

These works give form and sound to the act of reaching expectantly into unknown places, the tools we use and the crushing weight of sitting with hope, waiting.

As a nod to the material makeup of traditional calls, the instruments are made of wood and slate found on site. incorporated wood was burned to reshape and reform the found object, intentionally marking the sacredness of the transformation process.

much gratitude to jerry parham, kaylee resha, michael schiavone, gene miller the national wild turkey federation and residency 108 for their generous support with this work’s development.

The Der Zahn series of objects, drawings and video was the subject of focus in the DER ZAHN solo exhibition at Galerie HELL Berlin in 2022.

Primal dreams are the entryway to this haunting, autobiographical body of work.

What we see is what is between the dream and the physical form. What we think about is the space of the black depth of coal and ink. What we hear is copper singing through charred wood.

In the forest of our consciousness we wonder if we are observing or being observed.

In the forest of our consciousness we pick up sacred objects that stick out of the forest floor like a trauma.

The event of a transformation into ashes will look like a specimen. It will look like the detached and intimate home movies that keep beats on a wall.

We're getting used to the rustic magic tools of anger, destruction and dislocation…

Selected works on paper created in 2020.

Built as a reaction to the current political climate, this machine delegates narrative responsibility to each person encountered.


The work is activated only when approached by a living human. the presence of the viewer causes the compass needle to pull toward them, with each person then becoming “True North”.


We live in a time when each political faction feels unheard, voiceless and underrepresented. the purpose of this compass is to make viewers feel the opposite sensations: being heard, seen, and recognized. it is hoped, as a result of this interaction, people recognize the weight of their own voices and no longer feel the need to resort to desperate, reactionary measures.


Accountability arrives when we realize each story is a critical part of the more complete whole.


Compass: Accountability Machine was built in collaboration with Timm Burkhardt under the label Gonzomechanics.

Boneworks is a series that haunts and manifests by means of the physical remains of collected pasts.


These constructions of memory - bones, wood, ashes and coal - illuminate into being based on the viewer’s electromagnetic presence.


This series reflects on the topics of memory, the transient nature of reflection and the role intention plays in retaining a conscious place in the present.

urbanvideoscapeshanghai is a two-part work: a performance series and an installation.

a series of live painting performances took place in various public locations around the city of shanghai in 2010, using the city and its everyday scenes as catalyst. the filming of these “real canvas” resulted in an inclusion of the chaos, noise and humanity of the creative process in seven different video works.

the settings of these public performances included construction-site rooftops, pedestrian bridges, grounds of the World Expo and crowded street markets.

in footage of each performance, the immediate urban surroundings were painted on planes of glass with the living environment behind roaring to life - the commentary of the watching crowds and jarring noises from urban landscapes blended into a work bigger than the sum total of its parts. the observing audience members compel specific attention, as in trying to make sense of the performance, they become its most fascinating element.

as a final installation, footage from the seven performances were blared at various speeds from found television sets situated within mounds of brick and street debris sourced from local construction sites. the audio - a deafening roar - combined the street sounds in the television footage with the steady sound of a human heartbeat (courtesy of sound artist luca forcucci) to overwhelm senses with the raw pulse of an untamed city.

this work serves the theory that the regenerative process is dependent on the cyclical relationship between destruction and creation. urbanvideoscapeshanghai would like to remind the necessary role of chaos in the creative process.

urbanvideoscapeshanghai was a collaboration with photographer xepo ws.

URBANVIDEOSCAPESHANGHAI was installed as part of stage候台Back gallery’s LOST AND FOUND 轮回 group exhibition in 2011.

LOST AND FOUND 轮回 was curated by Susanne Junker with participating artists: Maleonn Ma, Laurent Friquet, Tang Xiao Wen 唐潇雯 Kathryn Gohmert, Xepo WS and Chris Gill.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣



All photos by Xepo WS ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣.



press:

2011 arts roundup: 3 to see, smart shanghai, frances arnold

2011 lost and found, time out shanghai, bs

2011 das ende vom 696, ART kunstmagazin, eike stratmann

Geistmaschine: Buchenwald is an invention built to amplify both the presence of the viewer and memory using its own form and mechanics as catalyst.


Constructed mainly from birch, this sculpture houses a hidden motor. Knocking is initiated by a mechanical arm inside the work when a sensor notes the viewer’s presence.


A machine’s acoustic knocking is released at alternating speeds and intervals, only activated when the sensor marks a viewer moving away from its placement in space.


Touching the viewer’s senses with a lingering feeling of uncertainty about what may or may not have been heard while in retreat from the (seemingly) inanimate work is a means of duplicating a very specific haunting native to our collective, human past: when we allow hard lessons to move from our periphery, we most need their reminders to sound.

Selected work created between 2009 - 2014.