kate kretz
Your Fragility, 2010
14 x 15 inches
mother’s hair from gestation period, child’s garment, velvet.
Statement
Upon the occasion of my daughter’s birth, I became almost agoraphobic, irrationally figuring that, if we never left the house, nothing bad could ever happen to her. This piece, made within her first six months of life, is a simultaneous invocation for her safety, and a confession of my own newly hyperbolized emotional vulnerability. The hair used is that which was on my head during the time that I dreamt of her, during the time that I carried her. Like rings of a tree, a length of hair embodies the passage of time, carrying a discernible record of an organism’s extreme life experiences. The repetitive act of embroidery seems to be made for calming worry… trying to tie things down, sew them in, make them stay. Embroidering with hair possesses its own unique intensity: each stitch is like a rosary bead, marking a tiny, intense prayer repeated over and over.
KATE KRETZ
Associate Professor Emerita,
Florida International State University, Miami, FL
Kate Kretz’s exhibitions include the MAD museum in New York, Van Gijn Museum, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Berlin, Wignall Museum, Katonah Museum, Frost Museum, Fort Collins MOCA, San Jose Museum of Textiles, Racine Museum of Art, Telfair Museum, Fort Lauderdale Museum, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. She has received three MD Arts Council grants (in Crafts and Painting), the NC Arts Council Grant, The South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, and a Florida Visual Arts Fellowship. She received the SECAC award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, and is on the Fulbright Specialist Roster. She is a James Renwick Alliance 2019-2020 Distinguished Artist. Her work is at www.katekretz.com.