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Kat Bawden

@bawdenka

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Artist, educator, curator in Chicago 🪶
@___murmuration_____

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Clip from “Never-Ending Burn,” 2022 🧨 very excited that this and others from my video series Body as a Sensor will be exhibited in 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒉 curated by the wonderful Alicja Seledec @perceive.with.caution at @chicagograndgallery opening this Friday 🌙 by @bawdenka

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a year ago

Iosis — a semi-permanent installation in the Mill at Vicksburg as part of Prairie Ronde Artist Residency 🟥

I spent seven weeks working in this historic paper mill, which is currently being rebuilt from an abandoned post-industrial site. I was inspired by the mill as a site of constant transformation. I was drawn to this room on the top floor, with windows that face both due east and due west. I found two dead birds in it. Being in the room felt like being inside a sundial. I wondered how I could transform this space using this changing light.

I was reading a lot about alchemy symbolism — moving from darkness into light. Iosis is the Greek word for the final stage in alchemy and is associated with the color red, symbolizing enlightenment, healing, and reemergence from spiritual death.

The color red has profound effects on our bodies. It stimulates our heartbeat and respiration, but can also be soothing. I wanted to create this experience of both activating the body and soothing it, inviting an awareness of one’s body as a site of constant change and transformation, as well.

This was the first time I made something I couldn’t take with me. It is also the last thing I made before I got sick with Lyme disease. This work was extremely physically demanding. I deep-cleaned and collaged each window in layers of cellophane by hand, in 80-95 degree heat, for weeks. I loved every minute of it.

I am eternally grateful to @prairierondeartistresidency @johnkern1 and co-resident @connerdarling for the opportunity, support, and encouragement 🫂 by @bawdenka

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2 years ago

Excited & grateful to be exhibiting my series Mother Figure alongside new work by the wonderful Ruby Que at Roots and Culture - opening November 7 🤍🪞🫂

✨KIN: a two-person exhibition by Kat Bawden and Ruby Que exploring ideas of kinship, connection, and community-building in apocalyptic times. The artists invite viewers to consider the complex and intricate web of relationships that shape identity, belonging and memory, proposing new ways of forming and maintaining kinship as a force for survival.
@rubyq.ue
@roots_and_culture_chi

I am incredibly grateful to the dear friends who have participated and played with me for this project, lending their bodies and stories and hearts ❤️‍🔥 by @bawdenka

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a year ago

Knots, 2022 🫳🏻🪢 by @bawdenka

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18 days ago

In Irish the word néaladóirí means “cloud-watchers”: people who read the sky and make predictions.

In Ireland at @cowhousestudios I used an old film camera as a pinhole camera and photographed the sky on tiny pieces of paper, inverting light and dark, looking for omens.

I added water from an ancient holy well to the developer, so each image emerged in holy water.

Part of an ongoing exploration of omen divination and my Irish ancestry.

Unique silver gelatin prints and holy water from St Anne’s well, sized 2x3 or smaller

Last slide is my studio at @cowhousestudios, the perfect corner for sky-gazing 🌤️ by @bawdenka

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2 months ago

Thank you @vostok_mag for featuring my project Perceptual Isolation (2019-2021) 🌙👁️ Feels like echoes of a previous life by @bawdenka

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a month ago

Fireflies, silver gelatin prints, 2026 ✨🌙

This summer under the moon during the @___murmuration_____ residency, I captured fireflies and put them in a box camera with photographic paper

I released them (alive and well) and was left with a unique print from their light (slide 2). In my barn darkroom (slide 7) I used these prints as negatives to contact-print a positive version

Part of an ongoing body of work exploring omens, divination, and my Celtic ancestry through chance-based analog processes 🕯️

Fireflies 1-5, 2026
Five 8x10 silver gelatin prints by @bawdenka

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2 months ago

Kat Bawden
@school.nuit
@elasticarts

#monochromephotography
#freejazz
#neoclassical
#experimentalmusic
#improvisedmusic
contrastphotography
thespacebetween
inacertainlight
monochrome
grainisgood.
bwphotography
blackandwhitephotography
availablelightphotography
light shadow contrast
rhythm cadence form shape
grain
missedfocus
motionblur taken in Chicago by @bawdenka

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3 months ago

To move a stone 🪨
video performance, made during my residency with @cowhousestudios by @bawdenka

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4 months ago

Spent my residency @cowhousestudios exploring ancient Celtic practices of augury, visiting sacred trees and holy wells, learning all the Irish words for rain, and searching for omens 🕳️🍊🦚

This residency has been a dream. I’m endlessly grateful to Rosie and Frank and Rebecca and the entire O’Gorman family for welcoming us to their home. by @bawdenka

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5 months ago

“Untitled (Being Kamille’s Mother)” 🐚 from my series “Mother Figure” on view at @candelaphotoarts 🩵 (without the orange light of my studio)

thank you @wmcole.rva for including my work 〰️ and thank you as always to @k.kamille for your presence 🤲🏻 by @bawdenka

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3 months ago

“Untitled (Being Eugene’s Mother)” from “Mother Figure,” 2025 🎀 some of my favorite images with darling @eugenetangible + sweet BTS by @bawdenka

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5 months ago