ARTIST STATEMENT
My work investigates my feral childhood, the between-space between neglect and whimsy in the arid Southern California landscape. Questioning the construct of the American dream; the ways it failed my family and how we survived. I use symbolic images and multimedia applications to explore speculative memories, how we inhabit spaces, or disappear within them. Giving material form to my memories within these relationships instigates a decay of self-presence. The object now holds the memory. Spaces are drawn, flattened, then reimagined in hollow line or dimension without form. An act of unsettling and repopulating. My objects are utilitarian, simple, awkward, and absurd. My drawings rely heavily on line. My performances explore the artifacts that remain once they are finished. They investigate care, sometimes gendered sometimes not. It’s unclear if these spaces and objects I create are public or if viewing them is an intrusion into a private moment. This uncertainty excites me.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kelly Marshall (b. 1978) resides in Seattle, WA with her family. As a multidisciplinary artist, she creates a range of work centered around concepts of memory, invisible labor, and “nonstalgia” in domestic spaces. Marshall holds a Masters Degree in Special Education and her MFA in Visual Studies at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Visual Studies. Marshall’s exhibition/publication history includes The Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; The Visionary Projects, NY; Shockboxx Project, Hermosa Beach, CA; Artist/Mother Network, Juried Exhibition; Portland Contemporary, Portland, OR; Roaring Artist Gallery; and The Front Arte & Cultura, San Ysidro, CA. She is the Director of Student Success at The Northwest School for the Arts in Seattle.
© Kelly Marshall