Nelly Kate is one of 12 artists selected as a Gallery 263 2024–2025 Small Works Project artist. This project presents artwork in flat files at the gallery and on our website. Visit Kate’s Small Works Project page →
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I grew up between North Carolina and Virginia, and it shows; not just in the way I stockpile Duke’s mayo and coarse grits, but also through the spirit of hospitality I bring to my work. I create experiences meant to hold and welcome us.
I’ve lived three lives so far; one as a competitive runner, one as a professional photographer, another as a touring musician. In this season, I’m interested in elements from each informing my Now.
What kind of art do you make?
I make art with and about sound. My work bears the indelible mark of my late-Deaf experience. So, I make things to reach across the senses and translate phenomena which our bodies sense but cannot readily name; often involving elements of light, the body, and sound. This can show up in the form of furniture, captions, poems, projections, vibrations, prints, videos, installations, codes, public programs, and on and on. I insist on things like: slow films, soft textures, the tenderness of inclusion, saying more, and repetition.
What concepts does your art explore?
d/Deaf gain, crip time, betweenness, nowness, subjectivity, fluidity, Queerness, semiotics, generosity, embodiment
Can you tell us about the work you have on view in your flat file drawer at the gallery?
The current collection of works I have on view in my flat file drawer at the gallery are risographs made from a series of suminagashi sound prints that visualize sound waves through transference.
Suminagashi is the Japanese form of marbling in which sumi ink floats on the surface of water and is gently transferred onto paper. The process is inherently fluid in practice and form. When I activate the size (water) with sonic vibrations, what emerges are silent topographies of sound. The originals are circular but this open edition is located off center on a rectangular page with ultra-visible titling. This is meant to encourage the buyer to orient the work freely, crop it, and install it as they wish. For me, relinquishing control is a small act of defiance against fixity and perfection.
Where do you make your work?
I make my work all over the place! I have a studio in the Vernon Street Studio building where I tinker with electronics, compose sound, test installations, make paper, and build speakers. For metal fabrication, I use the facilities at Artisan’s Asylum. For woodworking, I use a shop in my un-laws’ basement in Watertown. For printmaking, I work at New Impressions and Northeastern. For audio mixing and mastering, I work from MIT’s Spatial Sound Lab.
What are your favorite materials to use? Most unusual?
My favorite materials to use are transistor radios and analog tape machines. I like creating field recordings of different places, portrayed through their radio frequencies alone. I think their like sonic translations of the land and I love everything about them, from the warm humming crackles to the subtle pops.
The most unusual material I use is probably 55-gallon steel barrels. I repurpose them to make screens, speakers, benches, stools, and chairs; recently, I made one into a water fountain! I’m really interested in how to transform trash into sophisticated objects while leaving it recognizable.
What historical and contemporary artists inspire you?
Some historical and contemporary artists that inspire me are Maryanne Amacher, Fayen d’Evie, Christine Sun Kim, Tauba Auerbach, Toni Morrison, the Black Quantum Futurists, Andy Slater, Anni Albers, Jon Tjhia, and Sheila Hicks.
When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?
I’ve always wanted to be an artist. I started writing songs when I was 7 years old and I’ve been learning the world through making ever since.
