the intelligence of things

Kaitlynn Redell

Kaitlynn Redell, FU Unraveled, 2013, India ink and graphite on Duralar, 18.5 x 15 inches

Kaitlynn Redell explores the visualization of racial and gender identity using photography, drawing and collage. She is concerned with race and gender in relation to the body and how the body becomes codified within these socially constructed categorizations. Specifically, she is interested in the way in which bodies that do not readily fit into standard race and gender categories negotiate identity.
In her current body of work, Redell uses photographs of the 1920s Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong as a starting point. Through performative mimicking, photography, collage and drawing Redell explores the ways in which race and gender are performed by Wong. Using publicity stills of Wong and images of herself mimicking Wong’s poses, Redell explores how racial identity is assigned to particular bodies and the visual representation of this identity. She is interested in how her figurative drawings reference Wong’s image as a starting point, but transform into amorphous bodies engaged in their own narrative.

Kaitlynn Redell, Reoriented 2, 2012, Collage, 15 x 24 inches

Kaitlynn Redell, Reoriented 1, 2012, Collage, 15 x 24 inches

Kaitlynn Redell, Daughter of the Dragon Digression, 2013, Graphite and India ink on Duralar and paper, 57 x 31 inches

Kaitlynn Redell, Untitled Study 1 (AMW Series), 2012, Digital C-print, graphite on Duralar, 30 x 24 inches

Kaitlynn Redell, Tu Tuan Tu Tuan Transmuted, 2013, Graphite on Duralar, cut laser prints, 20 x 40 inches

Kaitlynn Redell was born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA. She received her BFA with honors from Otis College of Art and Design in 2009. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles including at Rush Arts Gallery, NYCAMS, Fowler Arts Gallery, Laband Art Gallery (Loyola Marymount University), Patrick Painter Melrose Gallery and Western Project. Redell has received funding from such institutions as Otis College of Art and Design, The Ebell of Los Angeles, Peter Goulds Fine Art and The New School, and is a recent recipient of the Oscar Kolin Fellowship Award. This summer she will participate in El Museo del Barrio’s Bienal Here is Where We Jump with her collaborator Sara Jimenez. Redell & Jimenez will be artists-in-residence at the Wassaic Project in June 2013.
Redell currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and Long Beach, CA.

http://kaitlynnredell.com/