Kate Davis: Nudes Never Wear Glasses

Using moving image, photography, drawing and printmaking, Davis’s work questions how historical narratives are produced and perpetuated. This has often involved probing the aesthetic and political ambiguities of particular artworks, and historical moments, from a contemporary feminist perspective. A recent series of prints, On Sensitive Ground, use soft ground etching techniques to explore the parallels between housework and the print studio.

Davis’s work frequently references the theory and practice of photography, and how that relates to other media such as drawing and the moving image. This is her first solo exhibition in Edinburgh and Stills is an inspiring context for Davis to make and present new work. This is also the first gallery presentation of her recently commissioned Margaret Tait Award film, Charity. Inspired by the ways in which Margaret Tait’s films invite us to contemplate fundamental emotions and everyday activities that are often overlooked, Charity questions how the essential, but largely invisible and unpaid, processes we employ to care for others, and ourselves, could be reimagined.