Katie Hallam – RSA Resident

ESW welcomes artist Katie Hallam, who was awarded a RSA Residency and will be at ESW from 25 March to 24 April

Katie Hallam is a visual artist based in Perth, Scotland. Primarily working in digital photography and print, she has recently moved into creating sculptural works exploring her key interests in the physicality of ancient geology and the dematerialised aesthetics of contemporary technology. This allegory is shown in motifs of geology representing ‘ancient power’, with the digital age represented with an electrifying palette; neon greens, lava orange and ultraviolets.

Katie considers the traces our digital culture will leave on the earth, evolving and morphing materials transformed into fossilised objects to be found by future archaeologists. These digital-mineral hybrid and hypnotic works sit against a background of open, natural and urban landscapes that tease the question of future glitches in nature and calls into question the sustainability of the contemporary world’s technological fixations.

With continued demand for refined mineral resources, geological matter is increasingly presented as a substance that is ascribed value through its conversion into a product, particularly products associated with technology. The residency project will address the physical dimensions of this materiality, the concern of natural resource depletion as we irreversibly change the Earth’s landscape. What we know about the planet of tomorrow is based on our planet of yesterday and the work will consider the Earth’s natural power to transform all matter through time. As a visual artist Katie’s aim to explore the geological as a descriptive marker of epochs and materials, slowed and transformational qualities of deep time and the resilience of future relics.

More about Katie Hallam and her work here.