Kaitlyn Hunter has a penchant for exploring the boundary between beauty and the grotesque.
The M.F.A. student in West Virginia University’s School of Art & Design said that sometimes, her sculptures “look like they might eat you.” From that initial impression, Hunter hopes that her bulbous, exaggerated shapes ultimately challenge the viewer to walk away with a different perspective.
Monsters, the human form and performative sculpture are a few of her specialties.
A native of Lisbon Falls, Maine, Hunter was named a 2014 Outstanding Student in Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center. She was nominated by WVU faculty members Jason Lee and Dylan Collins.
In February, Hunter traveled to New York City for the 2015 New Media Caucus, an affiliate of the College Art Association, where she sat on a panel discussing the intersection between bodies, genders, race, sex and different systems contributing to how people are visually perceived by society.
Hunter discussed a sculpture she made, called “Cacomorphobia,” which is defined as the fear of obese people.
“The piece is a giant pink bulbous suit,” said Hunter. “It’s essentially a monstrous fat suit.”
Built around one of Hunter’s old winter coats, the wearable piece is one of Hunter’s performative sculptures.
“It’s essentially like a physical manifestation of how people generally perceive me, but exaggerated,” said Hunter. “Using my body as a sculptural element is something I’ve begun to explore more through my work.”
The visually intriguing suit started many conversations when Hunter wore the sculpture to the Morgantown Wal-Mart, and also at a monthly art walk in her hometown.
“Lots of people asked what I was doing,” said Hunter. “The reactions and conversations were different at each location, with some people knowing it was art and others just wondering what was going on.”
Sparking thought and conversation through her work is ultimately Hunter’s goal.
“I don’t see myself making a statement, but rather asking questions,” said Hunter.
“A person might look at something I made and think, ‘Gross, monster,’ but then hopefully walk away thinking something different after spending some time with the piece.”
Now in the third and final year of her M.F.A. program, Hunter said that her work has progressed a lot since her first semester in the program.
One of Hunter’s first pieces from her M.F.A. program, which she described to be essentially “a 3-D quilted blob eating a piece of furniture,” was selected to be featured in the October 2014 issue of Sculpture Magazine.
The sculpture is currently on display at Grounds for Sculpture, an indoor/outdoor sculpture gallery in New Jersey. The piece is part of a traveling exhibition that will move to Phoenix, Arizona, in November for the 25th International Sculpture Conference.
“I can’t afford to go, but my sculpture gets to go,” said Hunter. “It’s cool that sculptors from all over the world will get to see my work.”
Her thesis show will involve a theme of performative sculpture and a new theme of “monster mythology,” she said.
She’s currently silk-screening monsters on fabric and sewing the shapes into plush, pillow-like objects. She plans to incorporate the monsters into an accumulative installation of monster plushies.
“My goal is to produce a whole new body of work based on the new themes, but hopefully better,” she said.
To see more of Hunter’s work, visit her website: http://kaitlynhunter.weebly.com.
-WVU-
blu/12/4/15
CONTACT: David Welsh, WVU College of Creative Arts
304.293.3397; David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu
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