Soft Landing by Kate Banazi
Screen-print artist Kate Banazi’s latest exhibition, Soft Landing at Curatorial+Co, explores the juxtapositions of the artist’s lived experiences of the last two years.
Words: Hande Renshaw | Photography: Anne Graham
New Typography Reassembled by Kate Banazi.
‘I’m finding it really important to make time to step away from the studio – getting some emotional space from creativity actually enhances it,’ says Kate Banazi. Photo: Anne Graham
Soft Landing at Curatorial+Co reflects a space of contrasts: : comparisons of day and night; city and country; distance and connectivity and time and space. Photo: Anne Graham
History Repeating Night by Kate Banazi.
Kate Banazi pictured with Soft Landing: silkscreen on light reflective fabric, leather and metal chain. Photo: Anne Graham
The last couple of years of lockdowns and restrictions have been a difficult time for us all, and in particular artists and creatives.
Isolation and time alone with their craft, their focus was suddenly shifted, and a new way of creating was commonly discovered.
For screen-print artist Kate Banazi, lockdown was a time to reflect on interactions and correspondence with loved ones, as well as pondering on the ageing process and her feelings around mortality.
Soft Landing, Kate’s latest exhibition at Curatorial+Co in Sydney, is an exploration of these themes - exploring the world view with captured people through frames, visual apertures, prisms and veils.
‘More than any specific moments, my inspiration was more about periods of strong emotions, from frustration and fury to the feeling of drifting, and then to joyful moments and interactions with people. We haven’t seen our families for nearly three years now so that feeling of containment within a screen, computer or phone really feels poignant,’ says Kate.
The series reflects contrasts: comparisons of day and night; city and country; distance and connectivity and time and space – comprising of 20 mixed media works on paper, light reflective fabrics and linen, blending paint, ink, pencil, and hand-pulled silkscreen printing.
In her work, Kate is most drawn to organic shapes and forms, which overlap and intersect, ‘It’s the mistakes or the things that don’t go to plan, which resonate the most with me – I like the way that information is lost or reinterpreted through each process so there’s always an element of surprise. I’d have an idea of how I imagine a piece to look before I start it, but it never ends up that way,’ she says.
‘I feel really lucky to have such a multi-disciplinary practice that begun out of necessity but now creates opportunities to work with so many fantastic people, be it a jigsaw puzzle, a public art work or a fashion print and then also being able to have the opportunity to show my work in a gallery setting,’ says Kate Banazi. Photo: Anne Graham
“I’d have an idea of how I imagine a piece to look before I start it, but it never ends up that way. There’s a joy in the unexpected interactions when a piece equally challenges and pleases me.”
Kate’s process starts with a series of stages, which she finds herself constantly applying more layers to – commonly starting with a study, often a drawing sketch or a small painting.
‘From there I’ll pull out a few of the lines that interest me and recreate them into Adobe Illustrator and create a self-contained shape with multiple lines in it. Sometimes they’re really abstracted and sometimes they feel recognisable, such as a limb or a torso.’
From there, Kate will create a large format film positive, which is then exposed onto a silkscreen, very similar to the photographic film process, ‘I’ll paint to build up the groundwork preparing for the silkscreen process and hand-print one off pieces using those shapes as a repetitive motif – these are sometimes a recreation of the original source drawings or a creation of a new abstract composition.’
The end result is a silkscreen painting, which is textured and almost like a traditional weaving, with the layering visible from certain angles and invisible at others, ‘It's a very physical process and sometimes the silkscreens can be very big – that always adds an element of excitement or challenge.’
SOFT LANDING BY KATE BANAZI AT CURATORIAL&CO
WEDNESDAY 13TH JULY - SATURDAY 23RD JULY
Studio 1, 175 Cleveland Street Redfern, Sydney
