Hypnotised Into Being
Kate Mitchell

Gertrude Contemporary was pleased to present Hypnotised Into Being, a solo project formed around a recent work of the same title by Sydney-based artist Kate Mitchell. For this work, Mitchell enlisted a hypnotist to induce her into a sub-conscious state and prompt her to respond to a selection of statements that she had earlier provided. Initially approaching the session with a high degree of cynicism, the artist was later astounded that she had indeed been coaxed into a subliminal state. In the work, Mitchell physically enacted various prompts related to art history, critical discourse and her own practice, as if playing a game of charades in a slumberous state. 

Other works in this exhibition similarly respond to how a concept of art or its affect might manifest as a physical form, such as the neon works What Thinking About Art Looks Like (2015) and What The Realisation That This Thought Is An Artwork Looks Like (2015), which replicate brain waves. 

Consistently imbued with humour, Mitchell’s practice draws attention to the perseverance required to maintain an artistic practice, as well as the repetitious monotony of life more broadly, as succinctly rendered in her work Getting Through It (2012), which was exhibited in Studio 12.

Kate Mitchell (born Sydney) lives and works in Sydney. Selected solo exhibitions include In Time, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne (2015); Magic Undone, Artspace, Sydney (2012); and Future Fallout, Chalk Horse, Sydney (2014). Selected group exhibitions include Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2012); Contemporary Australia: Women, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); The Grip / La Mainmise, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2010); and The Horn of Plenty: excess and reversibility, Para Site, Hong Kong (2009).

Kate Mitchell is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne; and Chalk Horse, Sydney.