Monday Muse

Interview Artist Kate MccGwire

Interview

Kate Mccgwire

Photography

JP Bland

06 November 2023

Interview

Kate Mccgwire

Photography

JP Bland

06 November 2023

Kate MccGwire grew up in the Norfolk Broads and spent her childhood exploring the waterways and wildlife in the region, which left an indelible mark on the artist. Now London based, she takes cues from the cycles, patterns and dualities of nature to create her abstract forms, which she cloaks in shimmering feathers. Housed in glass vitrines or tumbling out of fireplaces – her sculptures have an unusual energy and rhythm to them that both attracts and repels, a tension inherent in nature.

MccGwire has had solo exhibitions everywhere from London and Leeds to South Korea, and this autumn, you can wear a piece of her work, thanks to her scarf collaboration with Co-Lab369. She talks to The Wick about the magic of feathers, feral pigeons and dips in the River Thames.

THE WICK: Tell us about your typical Monday.

Kate MccGwire: My winter regime… I wake up around 6am, do some yoga and have a cup of tea in the studio until it gets light, then I walk just a few steps down the garden to the banks of the River Thames and take my daily swim. It’s a bracing and invigorating challenge and I get to immerse myself fully in the nature around my studio. If I’m lucky, I get to see our resident kingfisher as well.

TW: Feathers are a mainstay in your work. What first drew you to them?

KM: After graduating from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Sculpture in 2004, I was looking for a studio and found a beautiful 100-year-old Dutch Barge moored on a semi dilapidated island on the Thames at Hampton. I had spent my formative years messing around in boats so it felt completely natural to use this spacious barge as my studio. I revelled in the dishevelled nature of this island and the large, rundown warehouses populated by feral pigeons. Each day I would find feathers lying on the ground. At the RCA I’d been making work with hair so moving to feathers seemed natural as they are also made of keratin.

TW: Is there a specific place or object that you turn to when you’re in need of inspiration?

KM: Any form of water – the sea, rivers, a stream. If I can swim in it, all the better.

TW: Your sculptures have a muscularity to them – often appearing to writhe within their glass containers or wriggle their way out of fireplaces and hearths. They also seduce and repulse in equal measure. Why imbue them with this tension?

KM: My work always has this tension. It’s imperative to me that the work isn’t viewed as merely beautiful, although the element of seduction is important in order to lull the viewer into their comfort zone and then lead them into confusion with the writhing yet familiar forms that are both animal and often vaguely sexual.

“Feathers are incredible things – they offer warmth and protection, they provide flight and an escape, but they can also be key when catching the eye of a mate.”

The Wick - Photography: Vivienne Rickman

TW: You have just partnered with Co-Lab369 to launch a new collectible art fashion scarf. Why is it important that the visual arts and fashion have more of a conversation?

KM: When visual arts and fashion meet it often leads to innovative and thought-provoking ideas. What has been most important to me during this process is the opportunity to change people’s perceptions of the materials I work with by seeing them in a different context. Pigeon feathers have this wonderful dichotomy: they are at once dirty, remnants from ‘rats with wings’, yet doves are the albino version of the same bird and are seen as symbols of peace, chastity and something to be cherished. Working with Co-Lab369 gave me a chance to revisit some earlier work and look at it in a new light. The quality of the fabrics and printing we used is second to none and really enhances the natural lustre and bold iridescent colours of the feathers. Feathers themselves are incredible things – they offer warmth and protection, they provide flight and an escape, but they can also be key when catching the eye of a mate.

TW: Who has been your most supportive mentor or motivator in your career?

KM: I have been very lucky to have the support and friendship of awesome women in the art world: Clare Lilley of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, independent curator Kathleen Soriano, and Charlotte Boudon, the amazing gallery director of Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris. Aarti Lohia is one of my most supportive collectors and I am currently enjoying making a new commission for her.

TW: Tell us about your work INVEIGLE in Iris Van Herpen’s retrospective in Paris.

KM: At the end of November a retrospective of Dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen will open at Musee des Arts Decorative, Paris. She is known for fusing technology with traditional haute couture, along with being inspired by the natural world. To accompany Sculpting the Senses, over one hundred haute couture pieces will be placed in dialogue with a number of works she has selected from contemporary artists. For this exhibition I have made a new sculpture INVEIGLE (2023) – a mixed media piece with pheasant feathers in a bronze cabinet. INVEIGLE is a complicated, writhing and muscular form with a meticulously layered coating of iridescent feathers that change colour as you move around it.

TW: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be and what would be your dream project?

KM: Collaboration is a tricky and delicate balance and has to be done with people or companies that share the same ethos as you. If it were a place I would like a project with the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. If a company, I would love to work with Liberty’s for our scarves as I feel it would be the perfect fit and it’s a store I have always loved exploring – a complete feast for the eyes.

TW: Who is your ultimate Monday Muse?

KM: Georgia O’Keefe. She was fearless, determined and highlighted the sensuality in many forms of nature. She wanted to give every busy New Yorker the opportunity to appreciate the uniqueness of flowers, and to share in their sensory qualities.