Name: Commuter by Katie Watchorn
Start: 2024-09-29T16:00:00+02:00
End: 2024-09-29T18:00:00+02:00
Location: Waalhaven Oostzijde 1, 3087BM Rotterdam, Netherlands

Please join us at Shimmer on Sunday 29 September 2024 from 16 till 18 as we open Commuter (2024) by Katie Watchorn. The work will be on view until February 2025.
Earlier this year, Shimmer x Amarte, made a call for existing works that could be modified for the stairwell leading up to our space. We encouraged artists to propose old ideas or existing works that can be modified for this project. By opening up Shimmer in this way, we can continue to be a site of reflection for the artist.
Responding to our question, “How can we think of the weight of the work as distributed throughout the entirety of the building?” Watchorn is building upon her work Dry brimming (2024) by working with a breeze generated by air curtains, a system typically used at the thresholds of supermarkets to keep insects and dust out, and conditioning air depending on the season, hot in winter, cool in summer. We are drawn to Watchorn’s seemingly minimal approach that upon closer attention is ebbs and flows through architecture. Grazing the walls with fluid breath, that is invisible until one looks down at their clothing to see that it moves with the work and the space.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Katie Watchorn (b. 1992, Ireland. she/her) creates sculptural arrangements, exploring a form of communication through the language of materials and objects, interrogating associations which can be made with these new encounters with both domestic and commercial relics outside of their usual contexts.
Exhausted in their original ‘real world’ settings, the artist re-employs these objects in landscapes where a transference can happen between the selected materials and the viewer. Often, indirect representations of the body suggest its presence in the room through the use of circulatory-like devices or advertising displays. Watchorn predominantly works with pre-existing materials, slowly growing an attachment and bond with objects, meticulously forging connections through dedicated periods of time, allowing them to operate on the same plane as larger industrial systems in a non-hierarchical arrangement.
Recent presentations include Underbelly at De Ateliers, Amsterdam, 2024; Move-Set-Move group show at The Complex, Dublin, 2023, From Here to There, three person show at The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin 2021-2022; Zero Grazing, solo show at Studio Pavilion, Glasgow International, 2021. Her solo show Dry brimming will open in mother's tankstation | Dublin in September 2024.
ABOUT SHIMMER X AMARTE
Shimmer is proud to work with x Amarte on this project. X Amarte is a platform dedicated to supporting cultural organizations and institutions that focus on highlighting talented creators through various projects, open calls and events.