It’s not easy to understand what Kate Donnelly is up to on the fourth floor of the BCA Center, but it sure does look intriguing.
When I met her there for a chat the other day, the Burlington artist — and 2013 winner of the Barbara Smail Award, which includes a residency in the space — was wearing a white corset and floor-length white skirt with a crinoline. I believe she was barefoot, though her feet were not visible. And from the ceiling hung half a dozen sheet-size rectangles of blue plastic. The white-and-blue effect was mesmerizing, ethereal.
There wasn’t much tangible evidence of what Donnelly has been working on, because most of it is still confined to video and audio recordings. And confinement, in fact, is one of the ideas she’s exploring.
“You can choose to be ‘confined,’ or use it,” she said, meaning, I think, that you might be physically, emotionally, politically or pick-your-adverb contained, but still keep yourself productively occupied.
And Donnelly has done just that with her residency. She told me she has audio-recorded 100 individuals, each responding to a few questions she asked them, such as “What are you afraid of?” and “What did you do yesterday?” and “What does home mean to you?”
“It’s been astonishing how honest people are,” Donnelly said. “It’s like doing an audio portrait of a person.”
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