Event 1: Kathy High Exhibit

  On May 6th, 2015, I attended the Kathy High Exhibition at CNIS. At first glance, the exhibition did not seem to be anything special. There were some portraits of the artist, some whacky photoshopped pictures of intestines, a few "vials" with feces in them, and a short video about fecal matter. However, thankfully there was a curator to give me some context on Kathy's artwork.

  I believe in order to really understand an artists artwork, the artists motives must be explained. Although it may provide a biased view on the artists art, I believe the most important goal of an artwork is to present the artists original idea. 

  So analyzing each artwork again, I realized the significance and the deeper meaning each peice represented. Along one wall were portraits of Kathy High imitating the pictures on a few of David Bowie album covers. She is a huge fan of David Bowie which brings me to her next artwork. 

  From a huge print out of a letter Kathy wrote to David Bowie (she has not sent the letter yet), I find out that Kathy has Crohn's disease. One way to treat Crohn's disease is to conduct a fecal transplantation into the patients colon. The vial of feces represents those of David Bowie's and how she wishes that he would donate his feces to her. 

  Upon closer inspection, the photoshopped pictures of plants thriving on intestines with teenagers cheerfully next to them are heavily pixelated. I wonder if it was done on purpose and what the significance of it is. To me, this part of the gallery was what puzzled me the most. I didn't understand the overall idea the artist was trying to convey.

  Overall, I found this exhibition quite interesting. You could tell that her artwork was inspired by her medical condition and her infatuation for David Bowie. The gallery as a whole was whacky but it also gives insight into how Kathy High thinks. I believe you can learn a lot about a person through his or her artwork.