Kitsch excites the desire for ownership, and suggests “hominess,” or the kind of clutter in which objects are assembled in an attempt o signify wealth and taste. Chintz, beads, and lace can function as unnecessary embellishment piled on in an attempt to dress up an object, creating a veil for humble beginnings, while plastic attempts to preserve. Fashion, adornment, and ornament all have vicious life cycles - newness is simultaneously associated with demise and death. Though fashion and adornment are closely related to the body, ornament can expand to architecture and environment. I begin to blur the boundaries of body and object, different social classes, the beautiful and the repugnant, and the outside versus the inside. These decorative acts function as an aesthetic veil that draws attention to itself but is ultimately removed when the viewer discovers that what attracts them to the work are deficiencies.
Kate Clements is an artist whose primary material is kilnformed glass. She was first introduced to glass in 2007 while working on her BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute and continued her focus by completing her MFA in glass at Tyler School of Art, where she was awarded a University Fellowship. She has shown nationally at venues including The Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Paragraph + Project Space in Kansas City, Philadelphia Art Alliance and Pittsburgh Glass Center in Pennsylvania, and the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington State. She recently completed the Artist-in-Residence Program at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.