Kate Gilmore

I saw Kate Gilmore's work at Catherine Clark Gallery in SF - the video, Anything, showing her piling a bunch of chairs together and tying them with dangerously loose twine to reach the camera. The actions are ridiculous and a little unlady-like. There is an element of danger, but the kind that adolescents get in to - like if an eight-year-old did these things and hurt themselves, the parent would ask, 'did you really think this through??'. But Gilmore's actions are thought through, and that preposterous-ness is exactly what makes them great.

In “Blood From a Stone” Kate Gilmore, dressed like a suburban housewife in a cardigan and knee-length skirt, lifts 10 one-foot cubes of solid plaster one by one onto shoulder-high shelves. The blocks weigh 75 pounds apiece, and as Ms. Gilmore manages to heave each into place, wet paint on the shelf splatters and drips down the wall.
The videos make us question our capacity to watch them happen, I was uncomfortable during it and wanted to somehow help her out - she seems to be struggling. Then I wonder if that's chauvinistic or not? Any-hoo, they're definitely worth a look.