About Kat
Katie Hagen (Kat), neé Mather.
Visual Artist & Chartered Architect
Member of NBF - Norwegian Sculptors Society. Member of NBK - National Association of Norwegian Visual Artists. Former member of both RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects) & MNAL (The National Association of Norwegian Architects)
Artist as a way of being.
Henry Millar (American artist / writer, 1891-1980) has a quote that resonates within me - “To paint is to love again, and to love is to live life to the fullest”. I cannot not paint - It's who I am.
Educated at Edinburgh College of Art, Heriot Watt University, Scotland (1991-1997) my background is as both a Chartered Architect and Visual Artist. I founded my own architectural practice, Context AS, In 2004. However, while attending Slade School of Fine Art (Summer School), University College London in 2013, I recognised a profound desire to return wholly to art. After deep introspection, in 2018 I left a long and successful career in architecture to focus fully on my art practice - A practice that lies at the intersection between painting and sculpture, which expands into (site specific) installation and performance.
My artistic drive comes from within - from an innate desire to explore, to create and to learn things about myself, my connection to and within the world around me, and my relationship/s to and with others. The contradiction between lasting transformation and ephemerality, the fragility of life and the space left by someone – a being - who is gone, grief (love) in all its nuances is a recurring theme connecting my works, both past, present and future.
I allow my works the freedom to evolve intuitively, while simultaneously being intentional regarding the materials I use. I enjoy both the metaphorical power and the literal connection to place and matter that a specific rock, pigment or element can bring to work. Fire from deep within the Earth, ‘captured’ and frozen in time, my use of basalt alluding to the lava fields and black volcanic beaches of Iceland, to the fire suggesting a human presence dating back to prehistoric times in the burnt remains of Bone Black, while the chromatic blacks of my early works, depict ‘colours hidden in plain sight’, visible only to those who care to take a closer look.
Our relationship with fire is primal - a deeply ingrained aspect of human experience. We carry fire within us. Fire can gather, nourish, nurture and protect. Fire can also destroy, consume, devour, overwhelm. My fascination with fire is rooted in its ability to bring about change and transformation, both in the physical world and in our inner selves.
Ochres (“Iron Earths”) are consistently present throughout the cultural records of humanity and could suggest a deep permanence and embodied wisdom. My use of them could seem contradictory, almost out of place to the idea of impermanence, burnt remains and our ephemerality. Yet, both are intrinsically linked to us, our humanity, our psyche.
Burnt earth pigments (ochres) appear for the first time in my painting ‘Anam Cara’ (soul friend) November 2022, and then again in ‘Embodied Fire’ August 2023. I found myself instinctively drawn to these pigments. The allure of ochre – “Iron Earths” - and their presence in my current works is connected to profound loss, both on an individual and collective level. There is something about ochre, being close to the earth, being able to connect with and feel part of something more than one’s individual self. The astrophysicist Freeman Dyson has theorised “that in the whole wide cold universe, all matter eventually decays to iron” and goes on to state that “a star will almost immediately start to collapse in on itself once iron is introduced” (ref Heidi Gustafson, ‘Book of Earth’). A statement I find intriguing, if scientifically dubious. Though rather whimsically I do relish the idea of being able to connect “iron earths” to both our decaying bodies here on Earth and the dying stars of the cosmos.
One thing however is clear - It’s as if I did not choose the ochres of my current works, they chose me.
Rjukan : Oslo
Tel: +47 92281724 Email : kat@kat-art.no
