Sculptor
For many years I have been preoccupied with transformation and with that place where human, animal and vegetation intersect so that experiences, memory and meaning are mapped out on a topographic landscape narrative.
Human in the Landscape: Transformation, Memory and Place
In 2019 Borucka invited me to her home on Paros, in the Cyclades and introduced me to the striking terrain and concept of topos.
I work mainly in bronze, which has extraordinary transformative properties. Creative and destructive processes are inherent in bronze casting, in which the final piece can be achieved only through the destruction of the original. Monumental bronzes, like classical Greek and Roman marble statuary, are intended to be assertive and final, but paradoxically my interest lies in the temporal nature of casting whereby the figure is forever caught in the very process of becoming. The materiality of my practice mirrors these transient, shape-shifting themes, whereby memory is so visceral in its attachment to place, material and mythology. Here my interest in the idea of topos was piqued. In bronze, I cast feathers, leaves and branches which are burnt out directly, giving an unpredictable and startling level of detail. In my present work, marble itself takes on a similarly fluid property, as I use the marble dust from Paros to mould in plaster. Through palpation and impression, the plaster casts of human figures combine with local flora to directly embody – through mimicry – the landscape and its story.
This collaborative project offers an unusual understanding of this place in a pluralistic way by combining the different voices of local experts and residents with our experience as artists and mothers. Borucka and I both explore themes of transformation and of the cyclicality of nature. Classical ideals of beauty, previously so heavily entrenched in our artistic vision, have been flipped completely through childbirth, breastfeeding and parenting.
Our approach to material subverts the traditional sculptor’s method of carving the marble to release the latent inner form. Instead we build up our work, composing, gathering, forming, both in casting and in composition. Working alongside a fellow artist and mother who is so attuned to landscape, material and light offers new insights for my own practice. Our relationship, both as collaborators and old friends, is one of strength, inspiration and support. Our discussions are punctuated with parental dilemmas and practical challenges and sometimes simply just coming alongside one another.
Adapting my casting methods to the properties of the Parian powdered marble dust, my figurative compositions with organic elements create a dialogue with Borucka’s Paros New Earth circle paintings. Organic, and deeply personal, they draw directly from the local land and become a topos for these shape-shifting figurative fragments.
Sculptor
Born in Cambridge, Cat Vitebsky travelled from a young age on family ethnographic field trips to a remote region of northeast Siberia. Here she migrated with nomadic reindeer herders and became immersed in their world of shamans, myth and transformation where humans, animals and vegetation intersect.
In the early 2000’s she trained under a renowned bronze caster in the UK and spent several years mastering this archaic craft. She now works mainly in bronze, which has extraordinary transformative properties. Creative and destructive processes are inherent in bronze casting, in which the final piece can be achieved only through the destruction of the original. Monumental bronzes, like classical Greek and Roman marble statuary, are intended to be assertive and final, but her interest lies in the temporality of casting whether in bronze or as in her more recent works in plaster, in which the figure is forever caught in the very process of becoming.
She graduated in 2009 BA (Hons) from the University of the Arts, London. There, her main focus was around post-Holocaust memorialisation, intergenerational mourning, and the Anti-Monument movement, demonstrating how this is linked to the widespread rejection of figurative representation in post-war Europe.
Since 2019 she has brought her fascination with transformation to collaboration on Paros, to explore how myth, memory and experience combine to create a multi-layered topographic narrative.
Vitebsky is based in the UK but travels internationally for her practice. She has exhibited widely in the UK, together with collaborative projects and symposiums in Thessaloniki, Greece and Enschede, Netherlands, and has held a solo exhibition in Indiana, USA, entitled Zoomorphs: Experiments in Bronze by Cat Vitebsky. Her work is displayed widely in public and private collections in the USA and Europe, including recent public sculpture at Trinity Wharf, London City Island.
She is a founding member of Paros Creatives together with artist and friend, Justyna Borucka.
More about Cat
Paros Creatives 