KATHY
Angie Seykora + Peter Fankhauser, 2018
KATHY, a collaborative exhibition by Angie Seykora and Peter Fankhauser, assesses the privileging of humans as "subjects" over and against nonhuman beings as "objects" by presenting site-responsive installation and video that acknowledge the limits of understanding agency, reason, and autonomy outside of human perception. Kathy, a bottlenose dolphin who played Flipper in the original 1964 television series of the same name, chose to die; she voluntarily stopped breathing in the arms of her trainer after retiring from the show. The circumstances surrounding her death serve as a point of departure to reveal discursive systems which reduce “objects” to mere products of human cognition and examine the process of distortion inherent in translating her story using representational formats that mediated her objectness throughout her life and death.
Angie Seykora + Peter Fankhauser, 2018
KATHY, a collaborative exhibition by Angie Seykora and Peter Fankhauser, assesses the privileging of humans as "subjects" over and against nonhuman beings as "objects" by presenting site-responsive installation and video that acknowledge the limits of understanding agency, reason, and autonomy outside of human perception. Kathy, a bottlenose dolphin who played Flipper in the original 1964 television series of the same name, chose to die; she voluntarily stopped breathing in the arms of her trainer after retiring from the show. The circumstances surrounding her death serve as a point of departure to reveal discursive systems which reduce “objects” to mere products of human cognition and examine the process of distortion inherent in translating her story using representational formats that mediated her objectness throughout her life and death.
Photos Courtesy of Dan Schwalm
About the Artists:
Angie Seykora’s process-based studio practice emphasizes accumulation and tactile materiality to produce work that references the history of minimalism, bodily systems, and object oriented ontology. Seykora received an MFA in Sculpture from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. In 2018 Seykora was the recipient of an Unrestricted Artist Grant from the Omaha Creative Institute and in 2016, recognized as a Distinguished Artist by the Nebraska Arts Council through the award of an Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2013, she was presented with the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, from which she was selected for the fully funded Art-St-Urban Sculpture Residency in St. Urban, Switzerland on numerous occasions. Angie Seykora is an instructor of Sculpture at Creighton University. Her work is exhibited and collected on a national and international level.
www.angieseykora.com
Peter Fankhauser’s photo, video, text and web-based work considers new media as a space where personal narratives and popular culture are appropriated and queered to disrupt notions of authenticity. He earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Practice at the City College of New York and has since taught at City College (New York), St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn), the University of Nebraska (Omaha) and held posts at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York) and Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel (Los Angeles). His work has been exhibited at independent and alternative spaces nationally and abroad including Death By Audio (Brooklyn), Silent Barn (Brooklyn), AC Institute (New York City), and the Meltdown Festival (London). He currently lives and works in Omaha, NE
www.peterfankhauser.net
Angie Seykora’s process-based studio practice emphasizes accumulation and tactile materiality to produce work that references the history of minimalism, bodily systems, and object oriented ontology. Seykora received an MFA in Sculpture from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. In 2018 Seykora was the recipient of an Unrestricted Artist Grant from the Omaha Creative Institute and in 2016, recognized as a Distinguished Artist by the Nebraska Arts Council through the award of an Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2013, she was presented with the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, from which she was selected for the fully funded Art-St-Urban Sculpture Residency in St. Urban, Switzerland on numerous occasions. Angie Seykora is an instructor of Sculpture at Creighton University. Her work is exhibited and collected on a national and international level.
www.angieseykora.com
Peter Fankhauser’s photo, video, text and web-based work considers new media as a space where personal narratives and popular culture are appropriated and queered to disrupt notions of authenticity. He earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Practice at the City College of New York and has since taught at City College (New York), St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn), the University of Nebraska (Omaha) and held posts at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York) and Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel (Los Angeles). His work has been exhibited at independent and alternative spaces nationally and abroad including Death By Audio (Brooklyn), Silent Barn (Brooklyn), AC Institute (New York City), and the Meltdown Festival (London). He currently lives and works in Omaha, NE
www.peterfankhauser.net