Katherine Burling
Slip Quietly Into My Arms
August 5–August 27, 2023

Slip Quietly Into My Arms presents a selection of multimedia works on paper which imagine a world in which humankind, rather than Nature, plays Master Engineer. In this colorful reverie, Nature is no longer capable of properly sustaining itself, and humans intervene with mechanical, spiritual and fantastical solutions. From this idea, dystopian machines spring forth; machines without which plants cannot grow. Actors take the stage, playing roles not meant for them. The work is often set in gardens, mechanical or not, which play various roles: the fantastical landscape, the futile garden, or the hortus conclusus (enclosed garden). Unlike its medieval namesake, however, this hortus conclusus conceals hidden dangers, and the illusion of safety is pierced. The language of sentiment and kitsch is at play, and it intersects in curious ways with the animals; sentiment and violence are compressed into the same plane, an echo of our relationship with the natural world.

About the artist:

Katherine Burling is an artist based in Charottesville, Virginia. Burling holds an MFA from James Madison University. Her practice incorporates a love of material culture, the decorative arts, and vernacular artists. She is inspired by feelings of loss and chaos, oftentimes personal as well as social, ecological and political. Her most recent work imagines gardens which cannot grow without human intervention, and the futility of our haphazard meddling with nature.