Kate Bohunnis’ practice is conceptually rigorous and technically resolved, with an inventive approach to materials and a focus on gender, identity and queer methodologies. Centred from the perspective of a queer woman working in the male dominated industries of metal fabrication and sculpture, Bohunnis’ work focusses on gender performativity and gender-based violence. Recently she has turned her attention to exploring the many dimensions and difficulties of pleasure. In form, it often leans toward the abject as a way of negotiating these bodily and political identities. She is known for producing pared back, large-scale sculptural installations using metals in contradictory and deliberate dialogue with wax, silicone, latex, leather and textiles. Her works are often highly charged with allusions to power, dominance, subjugation and containment, in order to demonstrate the restrictive and sometimes punitive nature of patriarchal ideals and fetishisation of genders norms.
Bohunnis has received significant acclaim in her career so far. She was the winner of the 2021 Ramsay Art Prize, Australia’s premier prize for emerging artists. Bohunnis was also recipient of an Arts SA 2022 Fellowship, and awarded the Eran Svigos Award for Best Visual Art, Adelaide Fringe (2020); South Australian Graduate Award, Helpmann Academy (2020); David Hayden Professional Development Award (2018); Watson Award (2017); and the Arts Excellence in Printmaking Award, Adelaide College of the Arts (2016).
fill me up and make me useful
2021
installation view
an active accumulation
2020
stainless steel
360 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm (detail)
an active accumulation (between)
2020
stainless steel, velvet, faux fur, linen, thread
143.5 x 187.0 x 3.8 cm
an active accumulation (1300 metres)
2020
stainless steel, latex, thread
360.0 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm
edges of excess
2020
stainless steel, aluminium, silicone, electronic mechanism
installation view, Ramsay Art Prize, 2021, Art Gallery of South Australia
Material Girls
2020
installation view, praxis ARTSPACE
strong house // soft walls
2018
aluminium, steel, paraffin wax, jelly wax, soy wax, dye.
installation view
edge of excess
2021
stainless steel, aluminium, silicone, electronic mechanism
Ramsay Art Prize, 2021, Art Gallery of South Australia
with each little death
2019
stainless steel, latex, cotton thread
installation view
fill me up and make me useful
2021
installation view
too soft too opulent
2021
stainless steel, faux fur, rope and plastic beads
358 x 93 x 130 cm (detail)
helpless at best
2021
stainless steel, faux fur, latex, corduroy, chiffon, rope and plastic beads
246 x 357 x 205 cm (detail)
an active accumulation (tense)
2020
latex, stainless steel
350.0 x 100 x 1.2 cm
fill me up and make me useful
2021
stainless steel faux fur linen rope leather latex and cotton
210.0 x 201.0 x 155.0 cm (detail)
fill me up and make me useful
2021
stainless steel faux fur linen rope leather latex and cotton
210.0 x 201.0 x 155.0 cm (detail)
with each little death #3
2020
stainless steel
230.0 x 90.0 cm
with each little death
2019
stainless steel
installation view, BLINDSIDE