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Cathy Wilkes, Non-Verbal (2005), exhibition view, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, 2006
Courtesy The Modern Institute Gallery, Glasgow
© Printemps de septembre, photo André Morin
Cathy Wilkes, Non-Verbal (2005), exhibition view, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, 2006
Courtesy The Modern Institute Gallery, Glasgow
© Printemps de septembre, photo André Morin
Born in 1966 in Belfast, she lives in Glasgow (Scotland).
As a leading light in Glasgow's young art scene, Cathy Wilkes' work found recognition at the last Venice Biennale. Arranging personal canvases and sculptures with found objects, rubbish and lowly and familiar props scattered in space, the artist's installations display an everyday world torn apart by disorder. Wilkes, who is often noted for her independence with regard to the contemporary art establishment, emphasizes the modesty of her intent, not without wit: “My works”, she says, “are the fruit of very simple thoughts which I make beautiful so that they can deal with the art world.” Powerfully inspired by her condition as a woman, her work nevertheless sidesteps the simplifications of any militant feminist rhetoric. Wilkes' works are in turn tender and aggressive, delicate and crude, expressing the female identity as a web of ambiguities.