K8 Hardy
K8 Hardy
K8 Hardy is a Brooklyn based artist working mainly in video and performance. She is represented by Reena Spaulings Fine Art. Hardy is one of the founding editors of LTTR, a radical gender-queer, lesbian-feminist art collective and journal. She also works as a fashion stylist for clients including Fischerspooner.
Her worked is influenced by second-wave feminist artists she is quoted as saying, "I’m not out to prove any theories. That’s a position I take. It’s one of anti-oppositional politics. I think it is often assumed that feminist work is trying to prove something, which is bizarre to me. The assumption that feminism is inherently didactic or polemic is so patriarchal”. She has also referred to Chantal Mouffe's "Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces" as a source of inspiration. Mouffe writes that artists, "can play an important role in the hegemonic struggle by subverting the dominant hegemony and by contributing to the construction of new subjectivities".
Early Influence
Hardy was born on October 27th, 1977 in Fort Worth, TX. She started spelling her name "K8" (as opposed to Kate) as a teenager, drawing from the street language of skateboarding culture and using the nicknames in zines.
She has a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies at Smith College with a focus on feminist and queer theory. It was during her time at Smith that Hardy was exposed to and developed an interest in contemporary art. This was also facilitated by Elisabeth Subrin, whom she had as a professor.
At 19 she received a grant to work with Miranda July and the Northwest Film Center in Portland. Oregon. She worked at Artists' Television Access in San Francisco.
Work
TV Lip Synch (2002)
K8 Hardy collaborated with Wynne Greenwood in the making of TV Lip Synch, a video in which the two artists lip synch to various daytime-television clips including scenes from Oprah, a soap opera, and a Barbara Walters interview, all programs marketed towards women.
Beautiful Radiating Energy (2004)
Beautiful Radiating Energy is a performance piece in which Hardy, dressed all in white, makes gymnastic contortions in front of a projected video while shouting “I am happy; I am here; I am hurt. I’m ready!” in a variety of vocal ranges that require a month of training. The video projected includes images of Hardy's friend Math walking away from the camera, found footage of reactions to the burial of Baader-Meinhof terrorists, gay rights parades, and body building competitions.
Works Cited
"New Report" (Press release). Reena Spaulings Fine Art. 2005-05-07-2005-06-05. Retrieved 2008-10-06. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
White, Michelle (May/June 2008). "Opposition + Equivocation: K8 Hardy". Art Papers: 19–23. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Burton, Joanna (Summer 2005). "Girl, Interrupted". Artforum: 107–108. Retrieved 10-05-2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Wang, Michael (June 2007). "Streaming Creature A New Generation of Queer Video Art". Modern Painters: 101–105. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Mouffe, Chantal (Summer 2007). "Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces". Art & Research. 1 (2). Retrieved 10-07-2008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Cotter, Holland (May 20), "Wynne Greenwood and K8 Hardy", The New York Times {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)