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Bio
Kate Morrell (b. Leeds, UK), lives and works in London.
For the past 13 years Kate Morrell has worked with archives, collections and libraries to develop projects that identify and respond to under-researched or overlooked histories. This work questions the conventional logics that serve and organise collections. By doing this, it invites critical re-readings of the hierarchies and structures of power which are given voice in their presentation.
With a background in artist bookmaking, her practice is situated in the expanded field of publishing. She works primarily with print media – with sculpture, drawing and video as extensions of that.
She has developed diverse methods for working with collections of different scales and contexts. Projects include: documenting illicit, private collections of pre-Columbian ceramics, displayed within the domestic space in Bogotá, Colombia; research within the Jacquetta Hawkes Archive at the University of Bradford on the life and work of the British archaeologist, Hawkes (1910-1996), whose work was marginalised by a male dominated research community, and a residency at a remote Swiss library, residing alongside ‘shelving robots’ in this innovative futuristic archive.
Pleats
Pleats is a platform and catalyst for research-led and collaborative print projects, that engage with archival research and practices, feminist histories and overlooked figures.
Operating as an extension of the artistic work and research of its founder Kate Morrell, Pleats continues a commitment to relationships between archaeological and artistic practices.
Departing from many fluid concerns, Pleats is interested in the following areas of contested research: archives, material cultures, the archaeological record and rural landscapes.
Collections
Books are held in Special Collections including: Tate Library Special Collections (UK); Henry Moore Institute Library (UK); UCA Artists’ Book Collection, Farnham (UK); Glasgow School of Art, Artists Book Collection (UK); Leeds Arts University Library (UK); Rollins Museum of Art, Book Arts Collection (USA); Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (CA); and private book arts collections.
Pleats is distributed through independent bookshops and galleries worldwide: Good Press, Glasgow; Tenderbooks, London; NewBridge Books, Newcastle; Presse Books at FormaHQ, London; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Florence Loewy, Paris; Printed Matter, New York; After 8 Books, Paris; Bladr, Copenhagen; Malenki.net (online), Germany; Inga, Chicago.
If you would like to stock Pleats, please get in touch. kate_morrell@icloud.com
Art Book Fairs
Pleats participates in art book fairs — when funds and work commitments allow — such as Small Publishers Fair, London; Bound Art Book Fair, Manchester; Miss Read, Berlin.