Kate Gilmore

plus ultra gallery is very pleased to present "if my shoes matched my dress i could destroy you," our first solo exhibition by new york artist kate gilmore. featuring a powerful new 16-minute video (entitled "heart breaker"), gilmore's latest sculptural installation continues her exploration of the symbols, behaviors, and sentiments associated with stereotypical expectations of women. with a compelling blend of humor and violence, gilmore offers a devastating reality check on contemporary romance, its signifiers, and the limiting roles and attitudes they encourage.

central to the installation is a giant valentine-shaped sculpture in gilmore's signature junkyard wood-remnants construction style. dressed in a pale yellow dress, matching scarf, hair ribbon, and high-heeled shoes, the character in the video (played by gilmore) surveys the heart sculpture and then walks off camera. returning with a hatchet (which also matches her dress), she begins to hack repeatedly at the structure, and continues well into a state of exhaustion. as she steadily works, nail-bearing boards fly across the space, suspending wires snap and fly furiously, and blood splashes out from pockets within the sculpture. defying the expected anesthetization of repetition, however, gilmore's video maintains a fierce tension. as the character barely misses chopping into her free hand or legs or being buried by the unstable structure that towers over her, the viewer is witness to a nearly unbearable determination. the installation also includes the remnants of the original sculpture, revealing just how precarious a venture it was to demolish it.

Pressetext

Kate Gilmore
if my shoes matched my dress i could destroy you