A Venn diagram is a solo exhibition of new sculptures by Naarm-based artist Katie Ryan. Made using flyscreen, clay and everyday objects, these works examine the intersection of contradictory or opposed spheres.
Produced through abstraction, diagrams present the relationship between a set of ideas as logical, contained and self-evident through ‘empirical’ aesthetics. In this exhibition, the diagram is imbued with absurd content, alluding to its fraudulent potential.
These works are further informed by cultural theorist Sianne Ngai’s concept of the gimmick, a contradictory and uniquely capitalist form. Frequently uttered, the judgement of ‘gimmick’ demonstrates an everyday understanding of value, labour and time. A gimmick is a device that makes dubious but attractive promises of saving us time, reducing labour or increasing value.
Both diagrams and gimmicks contain fraudulent potential. For A Venn diagram forms and metaphors are stretched and everyday materials are encouraged to perform in unexpected or dubious ways.
Katie Ryan is a visual artist who works through a combination of theoretical research and intuitive experimentation with materials. Born in Ireland, she has been living and working in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, since 2013. Her work is concerned with modes of understanding, looking in particular at the connection between language-based cognition and embodiment. Working sculpturally, she considers the body as a site from which to extrapolate ideas relating to individualism, value and power.
She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours at The Victorian College of the Arts in 2017. Katie was the Organisation Coordinator at KINGS Artist-Run from 2020 until 2023. She has presented solo exhibitions at CAVES, TCB Art Inc., KINGS, Bus Projects (VIC), Goolugatup (WA) and mono (Lisbon, Portugal).
