Nelly Kate creates space for public imagination and healing through the lens of Queer and late-Deaf experience. Hailing from the American South, Nelly has an expanded practice in sound which treats access as a site for poetic translation. Her work takes the form of time-based media, open captions, print, installation, and performance.
Nelly holds an MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BA in English from James Madison University. She is currently a visiting professor at Northeastern University and works from her studio in Somerville called, Post-Perfection.
Artist statement
These risographs are an open edition made from a series of suminagashi 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 both practice and form. When activated with sonic vibrations, what emerges are silent topographies of sound. Choices like the location on the page and titling are meant to encourage the audience to orient the work freely. For me, finding ways to relinquish control about installing art in a single way is a small act of defiance against fixity and perfection
Instagram: @ecstatic.magic
Personal website
images of work
