brittany m. watkins

GUT/CUT was created for 123 Park Avenue, relying on the former living room’s 1940s era architecture and fireplace mantle to inform the work. While Watkins’ installation work often utilizes domestic space as a metaphor for the mind, this was her first experience creating a home. The non-traditional artist-run exhibition space was opened by colleague and friend, artist Sharon Norwood, after she relocated to Savannah, GA in 2019. Curated by Allison Westerfield, GUT/CUT placed Watkins’ immersive installation work alongside fiber works by Savannah-based artist Kelly Boehmer. The work is grounded unapologetically in monochromatic shades of pink from floor to ceiling, offering to call into focus outdated notions of femininity as it relates to domesticity. The act of cutting and/or deconstruction is uncovered as a method of psycho-analysis. Housed in the entryway of the exhibition is Watkins’ video-performance work, Cut Piece, a title appropriated from Yoko Ono’s 1964 performance which invited audience members to cut away the artist’s clothes until she was left naked and exposed. While completely different in material and presentation, Watkins aligns the act of cutting into the object (the chair, the canvas, the material) with the role of the audience throughout the entirety of the exhibit. Rather than cutting clothes away from the artist’s body, Watkins cuts through upholstery, foam, and the internal structure of the chair. She has said: “if the chair is the person, being of mind and body, what part is the leg?”. This work is in line with the past five years of research Watkins has spent investigating the human psyche and its relationship to the external world. In the age of digital interface, Watkins often performs for the camera; thus, subverting notions of performance and the role of the audience.