Kate Beck, Poetics (Deep), 2011. Courtesy of the artist.
Kate Beck
By Frank Eerhart
At first glance Kate Beck’s work has a geometrical appearance. Drawn lines, straight, created in a controlled manner. But these lines follow the hand and come to existence as in a hand-woven rug of which beauty is a consequence of imperfection. The small nuances in the different shades as well as the sometime jagged paths of the lines – especially when observed from close by – make the drawings lively and highlight the unpredictable nature of the design process. It is a fascinating weave of moods.
Drawing as poems, Poëma
Kate Beck, Essential Structure, 2011, and Poetics (Deep) (detail), 2011. Courtesy of the artist.
Kate Beck lives near the coast and observes skies, clouds above the waves, horizons. In nature, the daily cycle is a repetition of something in existence for an infinite number of years. But the skies are always different, as are the waves, the motion, the color of the sea.
As two leaves are also never identical, not even if from the same tree. As dissimilar as fingerprints, despite the apparent similar structure. It is the tension of creating ever so small differences that fascinates Kate Beck when she draws with graphite. She directs the outcome, but leaves room for coincidence. She grows lines in her drawings as wood grains, a horizontal profile of growth rings as a witness of time. She draws them, like patterns left behind in the sand by the tides. Never the same, every day again new again.
Frank Eerhardt is a visual artist and writer from Eindhoven, Netherlands.