The Clothespin Mandalas comment on human body modification, specifically in the form of attaching clothespins to one's body. These circular pencil drawings with actual wooden clothespins secured to their periphery muse on the contemporary penchant for hanging, piercing and tattooing the body. They raise questions of identity, sexuality and gender, and investigate the connection between pain and pleasure.
Clothespin Mandala VI, 1998
pencils, acrylic, clothespins on canvas and foam core,
24 inches (diameter)
Clothespin Mandala Female Cluster, 1998
pencils, acrylic, clothespins on canvas and foam core,
72 inches x 72 inches
The Bedtime Stories are over-sized, book-like objects that hang from the wall. Each "book" closes with a brass catch in the front which the viewer is invited to open as if it were a private diary, highlighting the blurred line between the public and the private.
Opening the panels of these books reveal parts of the human body and words that are sewn onto fabric in an erogenous context, commenting on our human sexual behavior and courtship.
Bedtime Stories VI, 1997 (closed)
mixed media and wood,
23 inches x 23 inches x 21/4 inches
Bedtime Stories VI, 1997 (open)
mixed media and wood,
23 inches x 46 inches x 4 1/2inches
Bedtime Stories XI, 1997 (closed)
mixed media and wood,
23 inches x 23 inches x 21/4 inches
Bedtime Stories XI, 1997 (open)
mixed media and wood,
23 inches x 46 inches x 4 1/2inches
Hanging By A Thread, 2013 (USA)
Stop-motion animation, 9m55s, English, 16:9, HD
Logline:
It’s the future and humanity is but a memory, existing only in scattered pieces. That is, until a pillow's needlepoint rendering of three individuals, collectively known as the Clothespin Freaks, finds the spark of life and surfaces to fulfill their destinies. Once aware of their purpose, the group begins assembling the remains of humanity…
Hanging By A Thread (2013) was the first in the trilogy of eco-thrilling animated shorts followed by Meeting MacGuffin (2017). Las Nogas (2023) — last in the trilogy — is currently awaiting its World Premiere.
Watch Hanging By A Thread here on Amazon Prime.
Images:
Hanging By A Thread poster.
Hanging By A Thread Film Stills.
Video:
*Voice by Indigo Pavlov, Music by Kevin Bartlett. Sound by Brenda Ray.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these mixed-media paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights III, 2005
acrylic, blood on wood, 12 inches x 12 inches
Clothespin Tarot Drawings, 2003-2007
The Clothespin Mandalas evolved into the Clothespin Tarot Drawings & Clothespin Tarot Artist’s Book.
In these 78 pencil and watercolor drawings the "Clothespin Freaks", creatures made out of clear clothespins and wearing hand sewn clothes, are introduced and arranged in various traditional Tarot card poses.
The subversive Clothespin Freaks rebel against the establishment of the “suits”. Instead of swords, wands, coins and cups, the 56 Minor Clothespin Freaks make use of hatpins, darners, buttons and thimbles, alternative implements characterized by their feminist references.
Ace of Buttons, 2004
watercolor and color pencil on paper
11 inches x 7 1/4inches
Ace of Darners, 2004
watercolor and color pencil on paper
11 inches x 7 1/4inches
Ace of Hatpins, 2004
watercolor and color pencil on paper
11 inches x 7 1/4inches
Ace of Thimbles, 2004
watercolor and color pencil on paper
11 inches x 7 1/4inches
Sanguine Bedtime Stories, 2000-2002
Resembling medieval reliquaries, these book-like mixed-media objects serve as contemporary contemplation on blood and its myriad association with it like spirituality and mortality. The faded red tones staining the lace, latex and thread on the insides of these diptychs are the artist's blood. Through the process of stitching, embroidering, pinning and binding the blood-stained canvases, and through the use of iodine and gauze attention to the vulnerability as well as the regenerative abilities of our bodies is drawn.
Excerpt from "Intermedial Perception or Fluxing Across the Sensory" by Hannah Higgins.
"Similarly, Catya Plate's Sanguine Bedtime Stories was shown at the Lance Fung Gallery in New York in 2001. It occupies an intermedium between literature (in this case diary writing), sculpture and smell. Visitors smell small vials of blood; the interior receptors of memory fire off while visitors inhabit a red, living-room set whose fleshy tone and tactile walls suggest the interior of the human body. Here, perfuming and sculptural space are brought, literally, into the space of memory of the body and time structurally. It is elastic in space and time, suggesting intermedial points that span this continuum, even as the vials are separable from the room. Perfume and blood share longstanding association in occult philosophy: the combination recalls magic as well as the fundamental basis for the evocative power of perfume in the body's pheromones and scent organs."
Images:
Sanguine Bedtime Stories objects:
mixed media & blood
9 inches x 9 inches x 3½ inches (closed)
9 inches x 18 inches x 1¾ inches (open)
Clothespin Tarot Artist Book, 2007
Mixed media, laser jet printing
Slipcase: 10 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches
Enclosed works: various dimensions.
Clothespin Tarot is published by the artist in 2007 in a limited edition of 50, based on the Clothespin Tarot Drawings.
Excerpt from the Catalogue:
MULTIPLE, LIMITED, UNIQUE- SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION OF THE CENTER FROM THE BOOK ARTS, 2011
”In Clothespin Tarot and The Reading Catya Plate appropriates the concept of the Tarot as a mystical fortune telling game to address the feminine and question the nature of existence through the accessibility of play. The handmade quality of The Clothespin Tarot emphasizes the process used to make it and the interactive nature of the tarot and the book. Each card within the tarot delivers “serio-comic advice, colored by wordplay, double entendres and idiomatic expressions”. The clothespin freaks , a series of wacky characters invented by the artist and centered on the domestic — buttons, thimbles, hatpins,—create non-linear narratives based on fairy tales, real life and feminist critique. The Reading made with stop motion techniques animates the clothespin freaks, one of whom takes on the role of the reader guiding the Puppet (who was transformed from a human) through the selection of 7 Clothespin tarot cards: Hermit, Devil, Queen of Thimbles, King of Darners, Page of Buttons, World and Page of Hatpins. Integrating the human figure within a whimsical tale using claymation and other animated materials, viewers meander through Plate’s childlike structure only to be confronted with grown-up philosophical questions of knowledge and existence”.
—Karina Skvisrky , Entry Writer
So Soll Ich Meine Zahlen Schreiben (German: Thus Shall I Write My Numbers), 1995, 23pp. 43x28cm. 22b&w illustrations
Stephanie Brown review in Artists Newsletter (Publications quarterly), February 1995.
"The title translates as "Thus shall I write my numbers" and the book uses text and images to sum up (oops!) the oppressive experience of Germanic rectitude applied to writing numerals and doing mathematical calculations. Traumatized from an early age by her father's inflexible teaching of these skills, Plate extends personal distaste for numbers into a universal condemnation of an over-abstracted, over-regimented, technology-laden world, symbolized by contorting and dismembering her body to correspond with the shape of the numerals. As a complete innumerate lacking even an O-level in maths I can sympathize. Effectively presented as an oversized arithmetic exercise book with photocopied content and laminated cover".
So Soll Ich Meine Zahlen Schreiben, Cover
So Soll Ich Meine Zahlen Schreiben, Page 1
So Soll Ich Meine Zahlen Schreiben, Page 14
Meeting MacGuffin, 2017
USA, stop-motion animation, 10 min., English, 16:9, HD
Tagline:
The Struggle for water has never been this animated!
Logline:
LF (short for Lost & Found), a cheerful female animated sign takes the unfinished Homeys to an underground “Lost & Found” laboratory where a team of quirky, ingenious characters provides the Homeys with missing body parts and prepares them for their mission to restore balance to the desert Earth.
Meeting MacGuffin (2017) is the second in the trilogy of eco-thrilling shorts. Hanging By A Thread (2013) was the first and Las Nogas (2023) is the last in the trilogy.
Watch Meeting MacGuffin FREE on FilmCrib & Amazon Prime.
Images:
Meeting MacGuffin Trailer & Film Stills
*Voices by Richard Horvitz, Misty Lee & John McBride, Music by Zac Zinger (Unleaded Music), Sound Design by Studio Unknown.
Clothespin Tarot Drawings, 2003-2007
The Clothespin Mandalas evolved into the Clothespin Tarot Drawings & Clothespin Tarot Artist’s Book.
In these 78 pencil and watercolor drawings the "Clothespin Freaks", creatures made out of clear clothespins and wearing hand sewn clothes, are introduced and arranged in various traditional Tarot card poses.
The subversive Clothespin Freaks rebel against the establishment of the “suits”. Instead of swords, wands, coins and cups, the 56 Minor Clothespin Freaks make use of hatpins, darners, buttons and thimbles, alternative implements characterized by their feminist references.
Drawings:
watercolor and color pencil on paper, 11 inches x 7 1/4inches
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and "Clothespin Freaks" figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces. Together, they ”. Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Each painting:
acrylic, blood on wood, 12 inches x 12 inches
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 4) are multi-paneled interactive paintings. Upon opening of the painting’s doors, each center panel depicts a specific isolated, dissected human body part from a medical book in painstaking detail and in an oversized fashion. The words in the paintings create a dialogue between the individual panels as well as between the panels and the viewer. Literally speaking, the subcutaneous parts are out in the open, but in a deeper sense its cultural and social taboos, like death and sexuality, are being uncovered.
Lub Dub, 2004
Acrylic, mixed media, blood on wood
66 inches x 61 inches x 6 inches (open panels)
Lub Dub, 2004
Acrylic, mixed media on wood
66 inches x 61 inches x 4 inches (closed panels)
Lub Dub, 2004
Acrylic, mixed media on wood
(Detail)
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 3) are large, mixed media, multi-paneled, interactive paintings that engage different human senses in the process of perception. These paintings can be smelled, touched, tasted, heard and otherwise perceived.
They invite viewers to break away from the conventional way of experiencing art.
Peep Show, 2000
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 132 peep holes, frosted acrylic sheets, brass
85 1/2 inches diameter x 3 inches (closed panels)
Peep Show, 2000
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 132 peep holes, frosted acrylic sheets, brass
85 1/2 inches diameter x 121 1/2 inches x 3 inches (open panels)
Peep Show, 2000
Artist looking through peephole. (Detail)
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights X, 2005
acrylic, blood on wood, 12 inches x 12 inches
In the Suture Drawings the "Clothespin Freaks" comment on cloning, wombs, electricity and some other quasi science, with some physiological bits and pieces added for good measure.
Suture Drawings I, 2009
watercolor, colored pencil and blood on paper, sutures, buttons
12 ¼ inches x 49 inches
Suture Drawings II, 2009
watercolor, colored pencil and blood on paper, sutures, buttons
13 inches x 54 1/2 inches
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights XV, 2007
acrylic, blood on wood, 48 inches x 48 inches
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 3) are large, mixed media, multi-paneled, interactive paintings that engage different human senses in the process of perception. These paintings can be smelled, touched, tasted, heard and otherwise perceived.
They invite viewers to break away from the conventional way of experiencing art.
1001 Smells, 1997
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 1,000 plastic bottles with essences
91 inches x 62 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches (closed panels)
1001 Smells, 1997
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 1,000 plastic bottles with essences
91 inches x 120 inches x 3 1/2 inches (open panels)
1001 Smells, 1997
Artist smelling scent. (Detail)
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 1) are a series of diptychs. Each painting depicts a specific isolated, dissected human body part from a medical book in painstaking detail and in an oversized fashion on canvas with acrylic paint. The words in the paintings create a dialogue between the individual panels as well as between the panels and the viewer. The numbers refer to the classification system used in medical books. Literally speaking, the subcutaneous parts are out in the open, but in a deeper sense cultural and social taboos, like death and sexuality, are being uncovered.
Listen To Me! Talk To Me, 1995
acrylic, mixed media on canvas
50 inchesx 63 3/4 inches
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 3) are large, mixed media, multi-paneled, interactive paintings that engage different human senses in the process of perception. These paintings can be smelled, touched, tasted, heard and otherwise perceived.
They invite viewers to break away from the conventional way of experiencing art.
Play It By Ear, 2002
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 64 digitized sounds
70 1/2 inches x 70 inches x 4 inches (closed panels)
Play It By Ear, 2002
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 64 digitized sounds
70 1/2 inches x 140 inches x 4 inches (open panels)
Play It By Ear, 2002
Artist pushing button to hear sound. (Detail)
Ars Moriendi in Numbers, 1993-1994
The Ars Moriendi in Numbers series (Latin for 'Art of Dying...') consists of nine unstretched and embroidered canvases which hang from the wall like shrouds. This work is inspired by the 15th Century Ars Moriendi, the so-called European Book of The Dead, which consists of literary and visual instructions for the dying individual to prepare the soul for impending death. In these paintings I juxtapose the spiritual wisdom from the Middle Ages with our modern society's obsession with technology and immortality, which is symbolised by the Hindu-Arabic numbers. The result is an amalgamation of cross-cultural burial rites with personal images of death hinting that our century is not so different from the Middle Ages. Today's AIDS epidemic might pick out anyone as its victim, just as the Plague did then.
Ars Moriendi in 0, 1993
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 1, 1994
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 2, 1993
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 3, 1994
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 4, 1993
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 5, 1994
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 6 & 9, 1993
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 7, 1994
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Ars Moriendi in 8, 1993
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
60 inches x 49 inches
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights XIV, 2006
acrylic, blood on wood, 12 inches x 12 inches
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 1) are a series of diptychs. Each painting depicts a specific isolated, dissected human body part from a medical book in painstaking detail and in an oversized fashion on canvas with acrylic paint. The words in the paintings create a dialogue between the individual panels as well as between the panels and the viewer. The numbers refer to the classification system used in medical books. Literally speaking, the subcutaneous parts are out in the open, but in a deeper sense cultural and social taboos, like death and sexuality, are being uncovered.
Look Into My Eyes, 1995
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
26 inches x 60 inches
The Reading, 2010 (USA)
Stop-motion animation/Live Action,
miniDV, 22m, 4:3.
Logline:
A woman is awakened from a slumber and summoned to the door by a mysterious visitor to attend a most extraordinary Tarot reading…
The Reading was Catya Plate's first stop-motion animated short film, based on her Clothespin Tarot Artist Book and her "Clothespin Freaks" characters that she created and developed in a series of drawings, paintings and sculptures.
Images:
The Reading poster.
The Reading film stills.
Video:
*Voices/sounds by Catya Plate, Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 2) are multi-paneled interactive paintings. Each painting depicts a specific isolated, dissected human body part from a medical book in painstaking detail and in an oversized fashion on canvas with acrylic paint. The words in the paintings create a dialogue between the individual panels as well as between the panels and the viewer. The numbers refer to the classification system used in medical books. Literally speaking, the subcutaneous parts are out in the open, but in a deeper sense cultural and social taboos, like death and sexuality, are being uncovered.
The Ten Commandments of The Foot, 1996
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
84 inches x 24 inches x 4 inches (closed panels)
The Ten Commandments of The Foot, 1996
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas
84 inches x 72 inches x 2 inches (open panels)
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 3) are large, mixed media, multi-paneled, interactive paintings that engage different human senses in the process of perception. These paintings can be smelled, touched, tasted, heard and otherwise perceived.
They invite viewers to break away from the conventional way of experiencing art.
Touchy Subjects, 1998
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 4,000 nails, 114 touchable items, Braille labels
91 inches x 80 inches x 4 inches (closed panels)
Touchy Subjects, 1998
Artist touching item 84. (Detail)
Touchy Subjects, 1998
Acrylic, mixed media on wood and canvas, 4,000 nails, 114 touchable items, Braille labels
91 inches x 160 inches x 2 inches (open panels)
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 2) are multi-paneled interactive paintings. Each painting depicts a specific isolated, dissected human body part from a medical book in painstaking detail and in an oversized fashion on canvas with acrylic paint. The words in the paintings create a dialogue between the individual panels as well as between the panels and the viewer. The numbers refer to the classification system used in medical books. Literally speaking, the subcutaneous parts are out in the open, but in a deeper sense cultural and social taboos, like death and sexuality, are being uncovered.
Tribulations Of Barbie®, Or The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach, 1996
Acrylic, mixed media and Barbie doll heads
84 inches x 42 inches x 4 inches (closed panels)
Tribulations Of Barbie®, Or The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach, 1996
Acrylic, mixed media and Barbie doll heads
84 inches x 84 inches x 2 inches (open panels)
The Clothespin Freak Cloning Sculptures consist of two-headed Clothespin Freak figures made from clear clothespins and decked out in tiny hand-sewn clothes. They are connected by their brains so they can work together. These sculptures muse on the process of cloning that is used to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity.
Hive Mind, 2009
Mixed media, fabric and "Clothespin Freaks" figures
7 inches x 30 inches x 30 inches
Hive Mind, 2009 (Detail)
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights XII, 2007
acrylic, blood on wood, 48 inches x 48 inches
Threads: Interweaving Textu[r]al Meaning, Alexander Campos, Executive Director, Center for Book Arts, 2009.
"The 'Clothespin Freak Portraits' consist of oval-shape embroidered portraits on fabric, depicting god-like characters that can be seen as protectors of body parts and organs such a windpipe, foot, kidney, brain, pelvis, etc. In an ironic way, these so-called freaks, having a sacred quality to them, similar to patron saints, are actually more of a memorial or tribute, like a headstone. For example, the dates "16638-16792", embroidered at the bottom of "Kidney Spotter", can be seen as demarcating the dates this particular freak lived. These portraits are both icon and memorial, bridging our desires (hope) and losses (fears)."
Brain Grabber, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Foot Licker, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Head Rider, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Jaw Jumper, 2009
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Kidney Spotter, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Peeper Seeker, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Pelvis Catcher, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Windpipe Whisperer, 2008
Fabric, thread, polyester fiber
10 inches x 8 inches by 1 inches
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 3) are large, mixed media, multi-paneled, interactive paintings that engage different human senses in the process of perception. These paintings can be smelled, touched, tasted, heard and otherwise perceived. They invite viewers to break away from the conventional way of experiencing art.
More Than Meets The Eye, 2002
acrylic, mixed media on wood & canvas, 20 etched mirrors, parapsychology cards
91” x 91” x 4” (closed panels)
More Than Meets The Eye, 2002
acrylic, mixed media on wood & canvas, 20 etched mirrors, parapsychology cards
91” x 91” x 4” (open panels)
More Than Meets The Eye, 2002
Artist looking at Zener Card. (Detail)
The Clothespin Freak Cloning Sculptures consist of two-headed Clothespin Freak figures made from clear clothespins and decked out in tiny hand-sewn clothes. They are connected by their brains so they can work together. These sculptures muse on the process of cloning that is used to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity.
Cloning Ring, 2008
Mixed media, fabric, "Clothespin Freaks" figures (clear plastic clothespins, dolls' body parts and sewn pieces)
7 inches x 8 inches diameter
Cloning Y, 2008
Mixed media, fabric, "Clothespin Freaks" figures (clear plastic clothespins, dolls' body parts and sewn pieces)
7 inches x 13 inches x 12 inches
Cloning X, 2008
Mixed media, fabric, "Clothespin Freaks" figures (clear plastic clothespins, dolls' body parts and sewn pieces)
7 inches x 13 inches x 13 inches
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights XIII, 2007
acrylic, blood on wood, 48 inches x 48 inches
In Greening The Numbers each life-size, paper, resin-covered Hindu-Arabic number is wired to a metal fence framing. The paper numbers depict human bodies in motion adapting to their specific numerical shapes. The human body, covered with wallpaper flowers, walks, jumps, crawls, and runs into the numbers.
The bodies are missing their heads. Similar to amusement parks where participants can stick their faces into cut-out ovals the viewers are invited to put their heads through the head-shaped holes to "complete the picture" and reconcile nature (body) with abstraction (number).
Greening The Numbers 1, 1993
Acrylic, paper, resin, metal, wire
120 inches x 48 inches x 3 inches
Greening The Numbers 3, 1993
Acrylic, paper, resin, metal, wire
120 inches x 48 inches x 3 inches
Greening The Numbers 5, 1993
Acrylic, paper, resin, metal, wire
120 inches x 48 inches x 3 inches
Las Nogas, 2023 (USA)
Stop-motion animation, 19m32s, English, 16:9, UHD.
Tagline:
In the year 2523
Water water nowhere,
N’er a drop to drink.
Logline:
500 years into the future, the earth is a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Doctor Alma, a fluffy, brilliant Vulkeet (a cross between a parakeet and vulture) who drives a Vespa, must cure the only creatures left who can save the world by bringing back the rain - the bizarre and loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious sickness.
In 2023, Catya received a prestigious NYC Women’s Fund Grant Award by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and NYC Mayor’s Office for Media & Entertainment for Las Nogas.
Las Nogas — last in the ecological shorts trilogy, proof of concept and first act in the upcoming feature Alma — had its World Premiere in August 2023 at the ACADEMY AWARD® Qualifying 41st Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won the GRAND Prize: GREEN PLANET AWARD for Best Environmental Film.
Las Nogas also screened at the ACADEMY AWARD® Qualifying 21st New Hampshire Film Festival, won BEST ANIMATED FILM at the 35th Fano International Film Festival (Italy), Jury Prize for BEST SHORT at the Green Festival of San Francisco, BEST ANIMATION at the Queens World Film Festival (NY Premiere) and BEST ENVIRONMENTAL FILM at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (North Pacific Premiere).
Las Nogas also played at Animac (Spain), Cucalorus, Oxford Film Festival, Kerry International Film Festival (Ireland), BUFF (Boston Underground Film Festival) and many others.
Meeting MacGuffin (2017) & Hanging By A Thread(2013) are the predecessors of Las Nogas in the trilogy.
Images:
Las Nogas poster by Enrique Hernandez.
Las Nogas film stills.
Video:
Las Nogas trailer.
*Voices by Clarissa Jacobson, Misty Lee, Phil Miler,John McBride & Alessandra Levy, Music by Antoni Mairata and Sound Design by Neil Benezra.
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 1) are a series of diptychs. Each painting depicts a specific isolated, dissected human body part from a medical book in painstaking detail and in an oversized fashion on canvas with acrylic paint. The words in the paintings create a dialogue between the individual panels as well as between the panels and the viewer. The numbers refer to the classification system used in medical books. Literally speaking, the subcutaneous parts are out in the open, but in a deeper sense cultural and social taboos, like death and sexuality, are being uncovered.
Anatomic Relationships, 1995-2004
The Anatomic Relationships (Wave 3) are large, mixed media, multi-paneled, interactive paintings that engage different human senses in the process of perception. These paintings can be smelled, touched, tasted, heard and otherwise perceived. They invite viewers to break away from the conventional way of experiencing art.
A Matter of Taste, 2000
acrylic, mixed media on wood & canvas, 80 preserved food samples
80” x 55” x 3 1/2” (closed panels)
A Matter of Taste, 2000
acrylic, mixed media on wood & canvas, 80 preserved food samples
80” x 110” x 3 1/2” (open panels)
A Matter of Taste, 2000 Participant sampling food (Detail)
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights, 2005-2008
Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", the central characters in these acrylic paintings of futuristic verdant gardens are Button, the artist's dog, and whimsical figures made of clear plastic clothespins, doll's body parts and sewn pieces, called "Clothespin Freaks". Together, they observe surreal, quasi-botanical forms, which a closer inspection reveals them to be human body parts. The disruptive presence of mankind in "paradise" is neutralized through the body's fragmentation--a destructive process but, ultimately, one that may bring harmony to nature.
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights IV, 2005
acrylic, blood on wood, 12 inches x 12 inches
Button In The Garden Of Earthly Delights XIV, 2007
acrylic, blood on wood, 48 inches x 48 inches
The Clothespin Mandala comment on human body modification, specifically in the form of attaching clothespins to one's body. These circular pencil drawings with actual wooden clothespins secured to their periphery muse on the contemporary penchant for hanging, piercing and tattooing the body. They raise questions of identity, sexuality and gender, and investigate the connection between pain and pleasure.
Clothespin Mandala XIII, 1998
pencils, acrylic, clothespins on canvas and foam core,
24 inches (diameter)
Clothespin Mandala Male Cluster, 1998
pencils, acrylic, clothespins on canvas and foam core,
72 inches x 72 inches
Sanguine Bedtime Stories Installations
Resembling medieval reliquaries, these book-like mixed-media objects serve as contemporary contemplation on blood and its myriad association with it like spirituality and mortality. The faded red tones staining the lace, latex and thread on the insides of these diptychs are the artist's blood. Through the process of stitching, embroidering, pinning and binding the blood-stained canvases, and through the use of iodine and gauze attention to the vulnerability as well as the regenerative abilities of our bodies is drawn.
Excerpt from "Intermedial Perception or Fluxing Across the Sensory" by Hannah Higgins.
"Similarly, Catya Plate's Sanguine Bedtime Stories was shown at the Lance Fung Gallery in New York in 2001. It occupies an intermedium between literature (in this case diary writing), sculpture and smell. Visitors smell small vials of blood; the interior receptors of memory fire off while visitors inhabit a red, living-room set whose fleshy tone and tactile walls suggest the interior of the human body. Here, perfuming and sculptural space are brought, literally, into the space of memory of the body and time structurally. It is elastic in space and time, suggesting intermedial points that span this continuum, even as the vials are separable from the room. Perfume and blood share longstanding association in occult philosophy: the combination recalls magic as well as the fundamental basis for the evocative power of perfume in the body's pheromones and scent organs."
Images:
But Fear Itself Exhibition at Lance Fung Gallery, NYC.
Sanguine Bedtime Stories Installation with & without participant.
Conference Exhibition at Willner Jennings Gallery, NYC.
Sanguine Bedtime Stories Installation with & without participant.
Hatpin Mandala combines elements of the Clothespin Mandalas and embroidery drawings.
Hatpin Mandala was created for the PILLOW TALK exhibition at the RUTH BACHOFNER GALLERY in Los Angeles curated by Mery Lynn McCorkle in 2007.
Hatpin Mandala (2007) is a portrait of an unknown woman from the end of the 19th Century. It is embroidered by hand on a hand-sewn pillow. The embroidery depicts hatpins which are symbols for the suffragette movement. The drawing of the woman’s face is made with the artist’s blood.
