Kate Egan

Kate Egan was born in Manchester and spent her childhood in Vancouver & Mexico. After studying at Manchester School of Art MM U, she has worked simultaneously as a practitioner and lecturer for the past twenty-five years. Kate is the programme leader for the BA(Hons) Textiles in Practice programme at MMU; her research interests are at the intersection of interactive e-textiles and art for public space. She completed a major commission for the Bridgewater International Concert Hall in Manchester in 1996 and was presented to HRH the Queen.

Stack.Schiffli embroidery, electric fans, laser cut synthetic fabric, press studs, sound.250m (L) X 150m (W) X 200m (H) variable.2007-2025
Separated by time, 'things' are stacked, folded, thrown away, forgotton and rendered obsolete. This piece plays on ideas relating to the process of control by the ever-decreasing lifespan of objects. In the 1970s Jean Baudrillard made the observation: 'We are living the period of the objects; that is, we live by their rhythm, according to their incessant cycles. Today, it is we who are observing their birth fulfillment, and death; whereas in all previous civilisations, it was the object, instrument, and perennial monument that survived the generations of men'. One hundred million homes worldwide bought the first PlayStation; its control pad was short-lived, supplanted by the next generation controllers. Last century, over a hundred years ago, the schiffli machine gave birth to millions of metres of cloth, stitched for the household to consume, handle, care for, iron and was; this machine was superceded by the technological advancement of computerisation. In this piece the Playstation and Shiffli evoke the rhythm of the consumption that Baudrillard describes, but suggest that rather than see each product's death in a cycle of consumption, many objects are stranded (stacked) in a no-man's land, stored or passed on but not used. 1. Baudrillard, Jean, Selected Writings, edited by Mark Poster, Polity Press 1990 The Schiffli project 2007
Photo source of the works: Provided by the artist
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