Kate Cooper | VITRINE, London

A solo exhibition of London and Amsterdam-based artist Kate Cooper whose work reflects critically on the rapid development of digital media, performativity of gender, and representations of femininity.

Having established an international presence, exhibiting across Europe and the US, Cooper has produced a new body of work comprising of digital photographic material for her first solo exhibition within the UK. The works made for VITRINE respond directly to its environment; investigating the history of care work, female forms of labour and visual merchandising.

Exploring the position of the female body in the history of digital image technology and the labour and politics inherent within commercial production, Cooper is interested in what new propositions of refusal, sabotage or autonomy this form of working might propose.

The high-performance digital female body is regarded as an ‘object’ in itself. Programmed and performed immaculately in a world of hyperreal imagery, the women are never exhausted and constantly appear to be at odds with themselves which at times is deeply unsettling. Rather than occupying the perfect version of the female form that is inherent within CGI depictions, the women refuse their prescribed purpose.

Cooper aims to establish connections with these ideas and the historical forms of female work with new developments in digital technologies, infrastructure and the history and codes of visual merchandising as a performed space; interrogating the assumed politics in forms of display and using the female body as a tool in refusing structures of affective labour.

In tandem with her solo exhibition and the ideas within her practice, Kate Cooper will co-curate a series of events throughout 2017 with Chris Bayley (VITRINE). The first of these events will be a film screening in June to coincide with Cooper’s exhibition and the second and third events will be held in Summer and Autumn 2017. Each event focuses on various strands within Cooper’s practice and forms an additional site for discussion and debate. Dates TBC, email for more information.


Artist Biography

Kate Cooper (b.1984, Liverpool, UK) lives and works in London and Amsterdam. She is the Director and co-founder of the London based, artist-led organisation Auto Italia and is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam.

Solo exhibitions include Piece Unique, Cologne, Germany (2016); Care Work, Der Würfel, Neumeister Bar-Am, Berlin (2015); Experiments in Absorption, ABC, Berlin (2015); and Rigged, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2014).

Group exhibitions include Commercial Break, The Public Art Fund, (2017); Insomnia, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2016); Spending Quality Time With My Quantified Self, TENT, Rotterdam (2016); The elegance of an empty room (Film Screening), Kunstverein Hamburg (2016); Public, Private, Secret , International Centre of Photography, New York (2016); Glamour, CAG, Connecticut (2016); Secret Surface, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (with Auto Italia) (2016); The Long Progress Bar, Lighthouse, Brighton (film screening) (2016); How to live? Future images yesterday and today, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Mannheim (2015); Body Me: The Body in the Age of Digital Technology, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2015); Cookie Gate, Ellis King, Dublin (2015); Egress (with Colleen Asper) K,P!, New York (2015); Under the Clouds: From Paranoia to the Digital Sublime, Serralves Museum, Porto (2015); Liebe Deine Maschine, Kunstverein Hildesheim (2015); Humain Trop Humain, Palais de Tokyo, Par