If not now, when ?
Kate Daudy
Curated by Flavia Nespattidu
Exhibition from March 1 to 28, 2025
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Kate Daudy is a conceptual artist known for her public interventions, large-scale sculptures and experimentation with language. She has long collaborated with scientists and thinkers in many media. Although disturbing, his multifaceted work remains imbued with optimism. The current circumstances of the world may seem disastrous, but Daudy emphasizes that the future is in our hands. His work will be the subject of a retrospective at Sorbonne ArtGallery which will open its doors on February 28, 2025. Daudy will give a series of lectures "Amor Mundi" to accompany the exhibition: "Interventions As a Medium : Written interventions and Impermanent installations 2018-2024", "Advocacy, the environment and sustainability : Experiments with new technology and new materials", "Art + Science : Illustrating, advancing and exploring scientific ideas through artistic practice".
Lectures
"Interventions as a Medium" traces the origins of Daudy’s work in using words as a sanctuary by sewing them and writing them all around her, through the ancient Chinese practice of writing on objects she learned, to her interventions in public spaces. Daudy’s innovative city-wide projects and interest in the symbolism and active power of art is rooted in ancient cave paintings and ritual practice. Daudy’s work “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” is covered and filled with words and placed not just in museums and public spaces but also in town squares, a supermarket, a theatre and even Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. The work was eventually placed on the national curriculum in Spain. The lecture shows how humankind’s long tradition of public art has the capacity to convey ideas and imbue a space with narrative, in Daudy’s case, a narrative of community, empowerment and resilience.
“Art and Science” looks at the various works created by Daudy with scientists and medical practitioners. The artist has a longstanding collaboration with Nobel Prize winning scientist Kostya Novoselov which has led to a variety of works including the use of new materials, digital technology, sound and film work, installations and performance pieces. Their exploration of randomness and chaos led to the book Wonderchaos. Daudy has also worked with Hammersmith Hospital in London on a film for her Saatchi exhibition “It Wasn’t That At All” and currently with biologists recreating ink from a 7500 year old ancient Egyptian recipe, as well as sound engineers at the IRCAM here in Paris on recording honey with electrodes.
"Advocacy, the environment and sustainability" looks at Daudy’s highly conscientious and often labour-intensive repurposing of found objects and everyday materials into art work. The artist combines the use of new technologies and materials with natural materials like a fallen tree or honey gathered from the Cloud Forests of Bolivia. Her political care and attention to sustainability led her to create a body of work for a university in Kuwait entirely sent over in digital files. She even 3D printed sculpture combining sand with resin and disassembled the work upon her departure. Her installation for Glastonbury will slowly grow over the years: here the artist worked with a group of refugee women to create a meadow of handcrafted flowers symbolising the community and environmental values of the festival. Her upcoming museum show “Telling The Bees” explores man’s relationship with history and the natural world through the prism of honey. Her work fosters dialogue between themes of ecology, community, and the divine, inviting the viewer to consider everyday decisions in a broader context.
