From whence does inspiration arise?
I wake up in the night with dreams and ideas that I write down with a very soft pen on a large pad of paper by my bedside. I like the gentle sound of my writing.
I am also inspired by my friends – the conversations we have together, the shows we go to see. I’m inspired by the work I stick up around me on the walls of my studio. And oftentimes ideas come in a whoosh that serve as the foundation of an entire show, because in working through the idea and playing with materials to flush out components often leads to a larger expansion and expression of the first simple thought.
Admittedly I have so many ideas that people must find me difficult to be around, as I need time and space to understand and express them. It’s a bit like a dog that needs to go for a walk. It is just something that I need to do and get anxious if I am not doing it. That is why it is difficult to be ‘on holiday.’ Work and working through ideas is why I love being in my studio so much.
What else inspires me? Rocks, mountains, people, animals, the wind soughing in the trees, the sound of the motorway over my head. Seamus Heaney.
How do you see your art fitting inside a cultural tradition? Does it solely go to the Chinese tradition of writing on objects, or is there more?
I am interested in and would like to learn about all cultures.
Although writing on objects has been done all over the world for all time, I used to be really interested in the Chinese aspect of it – from writing on tortoise shells, the scapulae of oxen and then later when they started making
bronze. There is also Cuneiform – a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East – was written on clay tablets in the Assyrian culture. The clay, I suppose, ends up looking like an object; but the purpose of using and writing on clay is only to record the marks of the stick that is the writing.
Kate Daudy: In her own words
Above:
Kate Daudy
Photo Courtesy of:
Lisbeth Salas
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