“It Was to Be a Glittering City”, a solo exhibition by Kathleen Hudspeth, projects the future of Miami into a speculative eventual decline.
The imagery presents iconic vignettes spun from the narrative of an old woman’s history of place and family. Graphic, deeply encoded images act as synecdoche for the landscape, the city, the people, their dreams, and the consequences of building those dreams.
A short fiction written by the artist accompanies the artwork, and was inspired in tone and theme by The Invention of Morel, by Argentinian author Adolfo Bioy Casares. In Bioy Casares’ novella, the desire to capture that which cannot be possessed results in the creation of an enduring monument which itself is the means of destroying the object of desire. The protagonist who serves as witness to these illusory events had no role in instigating them, yet lives within them, and becomes an eventual victim of desire as well.
Similarly, the audience viewing It Was to Be a Glittering City becomes protagonist, witness, and victim within the elusive remnants of consequence.
The works presented are unique, hand-pulled prints created using monotype, lithography, intaglio, collagraph, watercolor and gouache.
Kathleen Hudspeth is a native of Miami, Florida, and an adjunct professor of printmaking at New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami. She is also founder and co-director of Turn-Based Press, the creation of which she was awarded a Knight Arts Challenge grant for in 2009. She received an MFA in printmaking from the University of Miami in 2009, and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000.
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