Kate Beaugié British, b. 1975

Overview
Kate Beaugié studied sculpture at Glasgow School of Art in the late 90s. There she began her life long investigation into the way we are exposed to light, according to our position on Earth and its journey around the sun. Working with light (and its absence) as a medium, she adopted the term light sculptor for how it described her manipulation of light and dark through a variety of media and their relation to the surrounding space. In this process, she came to regard photograms as 2D sculptures, for how they record the shadow or physical memory of three-dimensionality, and suggest space.  This research also extends to paintings. By focusing specifically on the light and shadows in the portrayed scene, Beaugié invites the viewer to examine and to experience to some degree, the three-dimensionality created in the painting.

Kate Beaugié's work is an investigation into the sublime experience of natural phenomena. She works with elemental forces: light and the resulting shadow, water, fire and sound waves, which are employed directly into the making of her work. 

 

Influences include Japanese and Chinese aesthetics and thought, especially Zen and Taoist philosophy. It is also likely that spending her formative years in Glasgow Art School's Mackintosh Building introduced the square motif into her visual lexicon. Sculpturally inclined, Beaugié extended this into the cube for how it acts as a receptacle and reflector of light. Like light and dark, the contrast between the hard-edged geometric and the flowing, curved forms found in nature has been a continuing preoccupation in her artistic exploration; which can be describes as an investigation into finding balance between opposing agencies.

 

Frequently, she introduces sound and music into her work, often in live site-specific performances; Music & Light Symbiotic Events. These performative works are highly collaborative and allow the artist to explore new aspects of an expanded practice - conducting and curating - with an exciting line up of internationally renowned classical musicians. Conceiving of light and water installations, in response to their physical presence and music, she creates a multi-sensory, fully immersive experience. 

 

 For example, in APPLIED PURE at the MI, Beaugié introduced the harpsichordist Medea Bindewald playing JS Bach (as well as other composers), to the public and to the Mathematicians of the University of Oxford, whilst they watched live diffracted light off water patterns projected above her. In 2021, in BEETHOVEN ON THE BEACH, Beaugié placed the Sacconi Quartet directly onto the beach, under the iconic arches of Folkestone's Sunny Sands in Folkestone and crowds listened to them play Beethoven's op.131 whilst the tide rose and the turn of the earth was recorded by a simple line drawn by the artist against the advancing shadows made by the arch.

 

Beaugié's work is held in the permanent public collections of VAULT100 at The Ned in London curated by Kate Bryan, at The Mathematical Institute of University of Oxford curated by Balázs Szendroi, as well as in the Hampshire County Council's Art collection.

 

She has exhibited her work nationally in numerous solo and group shows and has engaged in a series of artist residencies. 

 

Kate Beaugié has also achieved Arts Council funding twice to develop her practice and is presently developing two publications of her artwork.

Works
Exhibitions