Kate Gilmore at Pierogi

Kate Gilmore, a young New York-based artist, makes straightforward videos about uncomfortable situations, She stars in simple, demanding performances that are physically grueling, and absurd enough to be almost funny. One, included in "Greater New York 2005" at P.S.1, showed the artist comically struggling to free her leg from a hardened shell of cement. Her new videos skillfully balance her sense of rigor with a heightened appeal for empathy.

Gilmore's style is immediate and engaging. In Anything ... (2006), she wanders onto a grass field and stares up at a camera perched 20 feet above her head. We see her squinting at us sweetly and reaching upward, like a young girl who wants to be picked up by her parents. Then she goes to work, stacking chair upon chair in an unruly construction of furniture that she binds with twine. Next, she begins climbing, slowly, a little dangerously, closer and closer to the camera. After each step she reaches up, nearer to us. It's a simple gesture, and it's affecting. From time to time she steps out of view of the camera and gathers another chair, and the video (12 1/2 minutes long) continues. Her actions seem spontaneous and precise at the same time. When she arrives at the top of her structure she is able to graze the lens of the camera with her finger, and we share her satisfaction in a simple pleasure, well earned.

There is a striking clarity in Gilmore's videos--she sets herself a simple, challenging task, and then carries it out, revealing her own limitations, and humanity, as she undergoes her self-imposed ordeals. Main Squeeze (2006) is a two-channel, five-minute video of the artist struggling extremely slowly through a wooden crate so constricted she can barely move. One channel shows her from below, the other from above, striving toward the camera. As she grunts and tries to avoid splinters, the look on her face suggests that she's not sure that the whole thing isn't a bad idea. Her unguarded honesty draws us in.

The activities Gilmore performs are extremely physical, even demeaning, and yet she endows them with surprising nobility. When she finally emerges from the crate we hear her breathing and see her sweat. We can also hear, and savor, her sigh of relief.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning