Catherine Dee

BA(Hons), MA.LA, Dip.Ed, MA.CFA.

email: [email protected]
Catherine @ Cargocollective

Catherine Dee trained in contemporary fine art and landscape architecture. By overlaying the two disciplines she has developed a distinctive outlook. Although her studies span written essays and editorial, her oeuvre is primarily visual, resulting most prominently in a series of drawn books, and in the making of experimental gardens, sculpture and installation over time. She employs perspectives from contemporary fine art to critique conventions in landscape architecture in order to stimulate new forms of practice and education. Mirroring this, her fine art practice is strongly influenced by landscape architecture, particularly in the use of the garden as art form. She has championed the visual as a vital and critical vehicle for clarifying ideas embodied in cultural and designed landscapes. Catherine Dee’s recent art works and exhibitions have increasingly focused on the materials and medium of the wood, the garden, and ‘terrain vague’, alongside a continuing water installation series. Much of this work addresses the relationship of utility to contemplation. Throughout her studies and teaching three concerns endure: aesthetic rigour; knowledge through practice; and the necessity of contemporary art as philosophy and ethics.