Cat Gunn

My Mother’s Mountains

For my mother, Lida

For my siblings, Siobhan, Morgan, and Gavin

For Siobhan’s children, Scott, Lily, and Tristen

For Morgan’s child, Aoife

For Gavin’s future children

For everyone biracial that grew up feeling disconnected from their heritage 

And for everyone who misses their mom

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and moving cross country, I have been thinking about my mother more often. As I began to incorporate ceramics into my studio practice, I found my forms becoming volcanic, cavernous, and mountainous with various glazes melting, oozing, and cascading off my forms. While my work had been a continuous experiment in form, color, and alchemy, it became a place for me to contemplate my mother’s Asian heritage and the disconnect I feel from it. My Mother’s Mountains is an exhibition that addresses how fiction, abstraction, and alchemy work together to manifest missing links of an untold familial history as it relates to my queer, transgender personal history. 

Cat Gunn

they/them/their

www.catgunn.com

IG: @mango__hot__sauce

A special thank you to my committee: Monique van Genderen, Anya Gallaccio, Janelle Iglesias, and Kazim Ali.