Kate Sweeney
Born: Leeds, England
Lives: Gateshead, England
Statu(t)es #2, 2025
Homemade rotten blackberry ink
15cm x 10cm
Kate Sweeney is interested in how we can expand ways to think and describe ideas of connection, family and relations beyond blood and DNA. Her work is drawn from inks, charcoals and stains that she makes by collecting from her intimate environment; i.e., plant matter, soil and scrap metal. She uses these earthy, dirty, fluids to describe the visceral, messy, challenging and transformative processes of becoming a mum. The homemade inks- rust water, mud and domestic detritus- are starting points for conversations with other queer parents about the origins of family and kinship not predicated on genetic links.
Statu(t)es #2 is part of an ongoing series that is a response to the growing legal and social animosity directed at LGBT+ families. Sweeney makes visible the ways lesbians and queer people produce babies and make families to affirm, celebrate, as well as defy attempts to deny this existence