While much of MK Guth’s best known work engages with performativity and social rituals—creating scenarios for individuals in which to reflect on and explore their interactions with others—she’s always maintained an object-based studio practice.
In a recent conversation, Guth and I discussed how these new, object-based works came together in this exhibition to create a performative space for viewer engagement.
Danica Sachs: I found myself intrigued by the discretion of the objects in Distant Dreamer in comparison to the more social elements of your practice. Let’s start by talking about the premise for the exhibition, and the objects within it.
MK Guth: I started out as an object maker and image maker decades ago, that’s where my practice began. Then, I moved into more interactive and socially engaged work right after graduate school at NYU. I appreciate contemplative viewing, obviously, I just did a show that demands it, but when I left [graduate school], I felt there was something that could activate a viewer in a different way and could make the experience more visceral.
I still make objects, and I still make images, but it’s very hard for me not to still be tethered to that interest. My interest in the social aspects of our society has always played in my work, and in the case of this exhibition, I think it happens in a lot of different ways. [...]
