KATE ROHDE

Familiars

"Familiars" brings together a collection of pieces made by Kate Rohde over the last several years, drawing on creatures and forms closely related to the artist's personal experience and steeped in local lore. They are familiars in the sense of being creatures often assigned the role of daemon companions to humans, but also for having been pieces that have been worked and reworked on multiple occasions, leading to an intimate understanding of how the piece has been made and an evolution of form.

Many of Rohde’s favourite creature subjects were the pets and fauna surrounding her as a child growing up in the forested Dandenongs on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne. Introduced species, like cats, dogs, horses, deer, rabbits and foxes, alongside native possums and colourful parrots and snakes, figure prominently in her works. A family story of encountering a legendary anomalous black panther in Gippsland inspired the Black panther urn as a memorial to the enduring myth of big cats on the loose where they shouldn’t be. The deer and antler have also been influential as a subject, as a teenager Rohde would often walk past and admire a family of pet deer and their impressive antlers, until several years later they were set loose, and now wreak havoc across the area as a feral herd marauding the native bush.

Using a range of media and sculpting and casting techniques, the works have been wrought in her signature maximalist style to create a strange, surreal trophy room of old friends.

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