Playing with the physicality of language, the artist writes letters and words in ink and then presses them, like flower petals, creating little Rorschach’s. Words mirror themselves. For example, Me becomes We.
The intricate drawings look like hieroglyphics, but on close examination a perceptive viewer can sometimes decipher the mysterious messages. The drawings include inspirational quotes and calls to action from women through the ages, including Countess Markievicz, Mary Robinson, Vandana Shiva, Chelsea Manning, Amanda Gorman, and others.
Change is coming, whether you like it or not. -Greta Thunberg
SPRING 2021: A selection of Love Letters is currently on view in Fight Like a Girl at VAN HORN in Düsseldorf, in a three person exhibition with Andrea Bowers and Wendy White, through June 2021.
NOTE: Born in 1975, Katie Holten has been collecting artworks made that year. Her Love Letters are a homage to Bruce Conner’s DECK drawings, which he started in the summer of 1975 and attributed to Emily Feather and Anonymous.