Katie Hargrave / About
Americans and non-Americans alike have created an imagined community that is located quite physically in the places that make up the United States of America, but it is also located in the stories we tell and the stories told about us. They are truth and fiction, visible and invisible, made and maintained in literature, history, and in the landscape. They are specific reflections of desires and fears, possibilities and impossibilities, failures and successes.
I intend to create a contact zone for various perspectives, imagined histories, and conflicting reflections. How might doing this alter the ways stories are told? I hope to bring up more questions than answers and to address the tenuous relationships we all have to histories, each other, and to this land. The outcome of my research varies in every project, including performance, printed matter, installation, sound, and video. My practice and the efficacy of my results depend heavily on collaborative learning and community engagement. For many projects I conduct short research trips to local archives, libraries, town squares, and county fairs. This interaction informs my investigations, and permits specific stories to be told. I am interested in point of view and wish to present a variety of narratives across my work.