Kate Corroon Skakel (b. 1992, Connecticut) is a Brooklyn based multi media artist, exploring concepts of fragility, beauty and strength. She grew up in New England, gathering inspiration from the ocean and the way the light changed through the seasons. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 2016, where she earned a dual degree in History and Studio Art, Corroon Skakel studied woodworking at Yestermorrow Design and Build School. She then spent a year and a half living in New Orleans, falling in love with the American South and expanding her art practice. In September of 2018, she returned North and settled in New York. She has been accepted to residencies in Ohio, New York, Mexico and France. She has exhibited in New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Louisiana, Chicago, and France.

I have spent years meticulously cutting designs into newspaper, cellophane, artist’s paper, and whatever other substrate I can get my hands on. Through this meditative process, I am producing delicate structures that question what we value in society. After yearning to create outdoor work, I recently created a pane of hot pink, transparent, cut vinyl that is weather resistant. The final piece is malleable and measures 9’ x 15’ and can be hung in a variety of ways by a durable border attached at regular intervals throughout the piece. Its transparent nature allows the light to stream through it and project pink on everything it touches. Over the course of Art in the Open, I plan on hanging and rehanging this piece twice daily. Each iteration will be dictated by the reaction of pedestrians and will consider how people are interacting with the piece. For example, one iteration can be hung in a spiral for people to walk through, a la Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. In another iteration, the piece may be hung as if it is a wall, and people can look through the cuts and see each other. I am not working only with a physical object but creating a performance of continued manual labor by taking it apart and putting it back up. This work is changing and growing, and by listening to the viewers, it will reinforce the importance of community input in our public spaces. In the times when I am not assembling and reassembling the piece, I will be cutting the same pattern into playing cards, plastic bags from the bodega, local newspapers, and other bits of ephemera to commemorate the occasion and sell to passersby.