Artist Lecture- Kathy Rose

Questions

I noticed that you put yourself in most of your video performances,  do you always perform in your videos or do you make film and video projections with just other dancers?

I see that you make videos, animations, installations, performing art, and photographs which medium do you find that you enjoy the most or find the most interesting?

Response

Guest lecturer Kathy Rose is a video filmmaker, performance artist, and creator of animated films.  I found Rose’s techniques she employs and utilizes in creating her animations and films fascinating, surreal and moving.  Kathy Rose spent most of her lecture showing us excerpts from videos she has made over the years.  I was surprised that Rose did not talk specifically about her individual projects or her process for making them. However, during the lecture it was asked what order Kathy Rose created her work, whether she made her animations first or created her dance and motions first.  Rose responded that each piece is unique and has different demands, and it is most important to have a distinct opening and closing for any projects development.

Rose seemed to answer one of my questions during her lecture.  Rose mentioned that the figures in her animation videos are a mixture of her students; people who volunteer to help her and herself.  Rose declared that she is interested in puppetry and that in many of her videos she creates puppet like figures of her subject. Just as a puppeteer manipulates the strings of the puppets Rose directs the actions of the characters in her films.  In many of Kathy Rose’s films she portrays her characters as very stiff yet flimsy giving them an eerily puppet like quality. Although Kathy Rose did not answer my second question during her lecture, one can assume that she enjoys mixing multiple mediums to obtain the effect that she projects in her work. 

Kathy Rose at the conclusion of her lecture expressed how costume design was a key component and crucial to her performances.  Rose commented on how remarkable it is to create sculpture on oneself and disguise one’s face. I found this to be intriguing because I also feel that costumes plays a major impact transforming characters creating illusion and an enduring impression.  Overall, I found Kathy Rose’s lecture to be very enlightening and compelling.