Installation

The “Meat Market” installation exhibit was a presentation of objects based on my experiences growing up working in the family meat market

This installation infuses the feelings of standing inside a meat market some 40 year’s ago. Constructing an installation based on memories attempts to say more than paintings on the wall. The installation creates a sacred space to reflect on the dialectical relationship between the imagined and the real world.

The meat cooler built for the exhibit incorporates the cooler door my father built many years ago. This installation conveys a sense of nostalgic place, recreates memories and reveals the visceral and physical parallels between butchery and painting. This installation pushes the childhood memories further by incorporating the actual meat cooler door built by my father, and other objects found at the family owned Wheat Ridge, Colorado market. “My father made a door frame from wood and then galvanized metal was placed in the door to help conduct cold air,” Kathy states. “I found it leaning against the outside wall of the meat market and it brought back memories of visiting as a child and then working at the market as a teenager and young adult. I was flooded with emotions and wanted to explore these deep-seated memories. Other meat machinery was lying around and I wanted to share my excitement of finding these old pieces with an audience.”

“Maybe the installation is in some way my attempt to bring back a part of my father who died 11 years ago,” Kathy adds. “Place becomes a part of each of us forever, but we all interpret it differently. The individual’s interpretation can produce negative or positive emotions. I have happy moments of working with my relatives but sad reflections of losing a beloved father. The past and time cannot be repeated creating a schism of emotional vulnerabilities.”

Kathy Knaus’ installation follows her exhibit “Meat Cooler Doors” featuring paintings exploring the cooler door and the link between interior and exterior in relation to her life experiences and exposing inner and outer vulnerabilities based on the past.

© copyright Kathy Knaus 2010