Niki Ketchman
Media: sculpture, collage, archival ink jet prints, drawings, paintings
I make sculptures by welding, sewing, weaving, braiding, winding, draping and decorating. Ideas about “women’s work” and questions of where Art, function, craft and design intersect are on my mind. Many of my sculptures are composed of a combination of industrial and domestic materials. Others are all soft. Some can be used indoors or out. Others, one or the other. My work often falls into a particular theme such as my Rose Series and my Sculpture for Home Use.
Although sometimes humorous, my sculptures, digital prints, drawings and collages make allusions to such issues as the passage of time, the digital age or gender roles. When creating my Resination series, I am experimenting with materials and visual and actual space. This often gives rise to new ideas.
Thinking about the passage of time, I sometimes think of myself as a Madam Defarge, weaving into the surface the events going on in my life. I have the sense that art can only be created at a certain time in history because it depends on both what has preceded it and what is happening in the time in which it is being created.
Lastly, I enjoy incorporating a little sly humor into some of my sculptures. In general, making large, aggressive forms and covering them with delicate surfaces and sometimes surprising little details is visually humorous. Multiple overlapping and intertwining meanings lend to some humor. For example, my sculpture, Zipped, is a cross between a condom and a dress.
Website: nikiketchman.com
Wood, metal, PVC pipe, resin, paint, polypropylene rope, 6’2’h x 3’w x 3’2”d