A phenomenological experience of landscape

Kate Abon is a Perth based artist and arts writer who is interested in the way ontological paradigm shifts change the way we interact with the world. During the twentieth-century, the western philosophical treatment of perception was no longer dominated by vision. Knowledge gained from subjective sensorial experience was shown to be as valuable as that gained primarily from sight. The site of perception became located in the body as a whole, not just the mind, and interconnection suggested that the boundaries of the body are porous and ambiguous. This shift is paralleled in the emergence of new types of artworks and art processes; environmental art, land art, body art, sound art, installation art and participatory art all recognise the importance of the expanded sensorial body in making and experiencing art.

Currently, Kate is researching Western Australian artists who are primarily concerned with representing their relationship with/in the land. She is exploring how the broadening of sensorial experience may be influencing our world view to allow for the consideration of land in its own terms, rather than from an anthropocentric position. She plans to use her residency at PICA to identify and interview local artists whose practices reveal a significant interest with the phenomenological experience of the landscape, either in the process of creating art or in the presentation of artworks.