Catherine Street is a visual artist based in Edinburgh. Her work consists of layers of experience. In installations her body is often present amongst projections and audio works, drawings and texts, creating an atmosphere that may be sensual, comical, disturbing. Staccato configurations of sound and light create an intensely sensory experience, whilst at the same time the viewer is invited to contemplate the ambiguously layered content of text and speech works. Intense breathing sounds give the viewer the feeling of moving inside the body’s cavities, whilst writings often describe breaking apart the flesh and returning it to its constituent elements. Meditative, precisely spoken audio recordings include vivid evocations of physical sensations, alongside speculations on the artist’s role and motivations. Rigorously performed actions are documented, and at the same time hints of vulnerability or playfulness appear in handwritten notes.
Street pays particular attention to themes of transformation and to the relationship between matter, thought, emotion and sensation. She focuses on bodily experience – the experience of interaction with, on the one hand physical objects and substances, and on the other hand meaning: whether social, political, sexual, spiritual.
Recent exhibitions, projects and performances have been held at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, the Reid Gallery, Glasgow School of Art and the Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow.
Image: Catherine Street, Muscle Theory, 2015, Reid Gallery GSA, photos by Alan Dimmick