About
Caitlin Kelly’s material based practice contemplates small acts of kindness and care, using anthropomorphic domestic objects as a microcosm for these acts. Through making personified objects, she builds imaginary realms filled with conversing objects that all have a strong presence, character, and relationship. Materiality is central to Kelly’s practice. She leans towards gentle and sensitive materials, such as clay, wood, and paper. Contemplations such as function, value, identity, and autonomy provide the foundations for her intuitive decision making. These intuitive decisions lead to weird yet interesting and distinctive combinations of objects and materials. Self-reflection is a core component of Kelly’s practice as the kindness she practices towards the objects acts as a lesson of self-kindness. She lets the objects rest from their daily tasks, and takes away their pressures, prioritising their existence as an object over their functionality.