Katie Cuddon. No Dimensions

About

Cuddon primarily works with clay, sculpting forms that are often pummelled, kneaded and masticated, and sometimes combined with found objects, furniture or items made with other materials. The surfaces she works with are usually painted rather than glazed.

The artist’s recent works have dealt with explorations of the complex, often contradictory aspects of the bodily and emotional experience of motherhood. In this new series she has set out to explore themes of mortality, memorial, rebirth, and the cycle of life; themes that have preoccupied Cuddon since the Covid-19 pandemic and since becoming a parent.

These explorations often take the form of changes made by the artist over time, carefully considered conceptually and formally in her studio and spatially in exhibitions.

Cuddon’s work is informed by a psychological understanding of the human condition, not only in the themes of human experience she addresses, but in the formal concerns she is preoccupied with, in voids and the interplay between interiority and exteriority. It results in a sense of anxiety in her sculptures, in works that are paradoxically appealing in their ugliness; obstinate and clumsy, not sexy and sophisticated.

No Dimensions is an ambitious project being developed in response to the space at Matt’s Gallery. It can be conceived of as a series of discrete elements brought together to be taken as a whole.

Cuddon’s recent solo shows have included Night Portraits at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea in 2023 and A is for Alma, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2024.

No Dimensions at Matt’s Gallery is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.