Waltham Forest (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A local Leyton photographer in Waltham Forest showcases her photography series on working clowns, offering a glimpse into the lives of these performers.
Kate Peters, whose work has been featured in The Guardian and TIME, is exhibiting Embodied Futures at HOST in High Road Leyton, tomorrow and Sunday October 26, 10 a.m to 5 p.m.
Embodying Futures examines the relationship between identity and performance through photographs of female and non-binary clowns, all by a Leyton-based Waltham Forest photographer.
Kate claims that the paradox of what it means to be “clown” to seem silly and light yet profound captivated her.
She says:
“The masks and costumes transcend disguise, they are tools of expression, allowing access to a self beyond where we dare to go in everyday life.
The work is not about stripping away the mask to find a truth, suggesting instead that a truth can be found in the performance. All selves are performed to some degree, and that performance in itself, can be liberating.”
Children (four years old and older) can create collages using some of the clown pictures at the collage station that will be set up throughout the exhibit.
Kate, who is originally from the Midland region, focuses on the relationship between people and location in her varied approach to art.
“As a way to engage with the world, form connections, to give reason for an exchange,”
she explains, she is drawn to photography.
She wants to tell stories that provoke thought and is especially interested in how women are portrayed and ideas of identity.
Her career highlights include being commissioned by Guardian magazine to snap 32 Olympic prospects, including as Sir Chris Hoy, Jessica Ennis, and Mo Farah, and having her image of Julian Assange, the author of Wikileaks, appear on the cover of TIME magazine.
Pictures by Kate Peters are included in the public portrayal Gallery’s endless collection in the London collection.
What inspired the photographer to focus on working clowns as a subject for her series?
Kate Peters was inspired to concentrate on working clowns because she wanted to tell the story of the complexity and humanity behind the zany character. She wanted to show the strength, fragility, and creativity that each of these players brings to life, not to mention the sense of fun and the part of how to be mortal that each clown embodies.
Her work also explores the disparity between public performance and the private lives of clowns, and the way performance portrays wisdom and kindness by mixing the ridiculous with the miserable. That guestroom is meant to work to the desire to get underneath assumptions and articulate the cultural and emotional significance of clowning as an art form, and a way of life.
The event includes interactive rudiments similar to a collage station for children to engage with clown prints, making the exhibition family-friendly and community-aware.
