Author / Kate Strachan

​

When reduction is used to eliminate everything, a person becomes singular; what is left to exist is a vision of oneself alone. What remains is only to hear and speak, which then denies the possibility of person and place. With vision masked, how does one’s realization begin to believe in what is concealed? -- Words.

Words are chaotic because they can never be framed nor measured. Words are infectious because they live inside us and can spread from person to person. Words are mobile because we can have the ability to carry them within ourselves. Words are also flexible and strong because over time words regenerate and revive through transmission by another, which carries out their message as if designated runners to relay on and pass the baton to the next.

​

Through continuous and repetitive actions using spoken words, which turn into a routine, the body begins to heat up until consciousness can be revealed. These practices of action create what did not exist prior, like a light towards a dark space uncovering what has been hidden.

​

My family is part of German Lutheran immigrants to Pennsylvania. Lutheranism is a word-based faith; therefore, my home never displayed any icon, which resulted in a boundless impression of God on me.

It is said that “seeing is believing”; however, “believing is seeing”. To question the idea of belief with Lutheranism’s invisibility written with a bit of dark humor and a touch of femininity. I used the concept of Fraktur documents, which are the folk-art manuscripts of my home used to record births, deaths, marriages and baptisms.

​

In my work, the combination of ceramic, felt, wood and wax together gives the reader a sense of an intimate silent study.