For the 16th edition of the RADAR project series, Kate Andrews has installed large
and small-format drawings as well as a net made from ropes. The title of her exhibition
– “Unfeigned Hoax, Veritable Nonsense” – describes a state of affairs we encounter
daily, especially in the media. It can be understood as a double-edged and at times
precarious formulation. In the light of this title, Andrews is instigating a visual
examination of the difference between facts and the sheer volume of information that
we are deluged with on a daily basis.

In her drawings, Andrews transfers the flows of information onto paper by means of an
accretion of various characters, such as circles, strokes or marks with the letter X.
Defined by its format, the pictorial surface becomes increasingly dense via the addition
of each trace, emphasising certain elements or concealing ordering structures. By
causing confusion and perplexity, Andrews’ drawings demonstrate the inability to form
a clear idea of reality. The surface, in a similar way to virtual information sites, thus
becomes a platform for deception and agitation. The superimposed layers of pencil
marks condense and intensify the pictorial information, making it all the more confusing
and unclear. We “see” a lot, but recognise little.

Whereas the large-format drawings are complex and obscure in their structure, the
smaller drawings in the “Soft Split” series are framed by pale pink adhesive strips,
which enclose a concentrated pictorial element at the centre of the paper. By applying
a second, thinner sheet of paper, Andrews layers the motifs on top of one another in
such a way that – even physically – they resemble an accumulation of data. In the
course of this process, she first retraces the markings beneath, subsequently
displacing them slightly. This engenders a degree of dissonance, clarity gives way to
the inability to distinguish individual facts or pictorial elements from one another.
Displacement goes hand in hand with blurring.

However, Andrews also brings the lower layers to the surface with this method and
allows them to diffuse and shine through via the material properties of the transparent
tracing paper. This gives rise to dense networks, which Andrews renders palpably in
the form of a knotted net. By means of the net, the sign becomes the signified, word
and image coalesce. In tandem with the drawings on the walls, Andrews has installed
the net, which hangs from the ceiling, as an object in the exhibition space. She has
painstakingly knotted it together by hand using ropes of varying grades and thickness.
By virtue of this technique, she pays decided homage to the idea of deceleration,
thereby creating a counter-image to the fast-moving flood of information. Thus,
Andrews also raises a network of questions that we would need to study closely to
ascertain whether we are still able to follow the individual skeins and narratives or
whether we are indeed “entangled” in the web.

Kate Andrews (b. 1992 in Toronto) studied fine art with Professor Stephan Baumkötter
at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen from 2016 until 2020. Prior to that, she studied
at Concordia University, Montreal and at the University of Guelph, Ontario, where she
obtained a BA in Major Studio Art. She lives and works in Bremen.

_{Photos: LWL/Hanna Neander}