Kathy Temin, artist, 56: Q&A

Kathy Temin’s in-demand soft sculptures have taken her to some strange places - including James Turrell’s Roden Crater - but none more unexpected than the home of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

Artist Kathy Temin in front of Woven Green. Picture: C Capurro

Can we talk about Kanye West? He’s in the headlines for all the wrong reasons these days. But in 2018 you accepted an incredible commission from him... I got a call one day from [gallerist] Anna Schwartz saying, “Kanye wants to talk to you.” I didn’t know what she was talking about – I wasn’t a fan! He’d come across an image of my work My Monument: White Forest on the internet and wanted me to create a large-scale work responding to his and [then wife] Kim Kardashian’s then home for their annual Christmas party.

Kardashian described it as a “winter wonderland Whoville” from the world of Dr Seuss, right? It was December 6th when we FaceTimed and Kanye showed me around the interior of their home. He asked me to do a one-night event. I said, “I won’t do a one-night event but I’m happy to do a commission.” Four days later I was on a plane to LA with my two-year-old daughter, babysitter and assistant. I just managed to make the deadline.

How? The work he wanted – 64 white sculptures made of synthetic fur – would usually take six months to a year to make and you had, what, two weeks? We worked around the clock in the Yeezy factory with Kanye’s team cutting the fur forms and sewing, otherwise I would not have been able to get it done in time. He treated me well – I went on a private plane with him and Kim to see James Turrell’s Roden Crater. I went to their Christmas party with their family and friends.

How do you feel about all of this now? Kim owns the work now and has installed it, with images on her Instagram. As an artist, what you want to see if someone buys your work is that it gives them joy. When I see images of the work reinstalled, it reminds me of the time that I made it – an extreme situation, but a great experience. It was before Kanye’s publicised vile antisemitic remarks. I have no tolerance for hate speech of any kind.

Even though you went to art school, and you’re a Professor of Fine Art at Monash University, you describe yourself as self taught. Why? I’ve learned a lot from other artists. I feel lucky that we didn’t have the internet when I went to art school. We were focused on seeing work in the flesh, and without the internet and mobile phones we had more time to work uninterrupted. All artists are teaching themselves no matter what medium they’re working in. You don’t know what you’re doing when you start, and you learn by making and experimenting. I think most artists have one idea that they’re working with and I don’t think it necessarily changes over time. Even if the work looks like it’s completely different, it’s usually the one thing that the artist is working through.

Kathy Temin with some of her soft sculptures

So what’s the one thing you’re working through!?[Laughs] I knew you were going to ask me that! My work is about oppositional dialogues, combining things that don’t go together, working with different materialities. I think a lot about Warhol saying that people only look at art for 15 seconds. I’m always trying to defy that. When I see audiences at my shows, I can see that the work either repels them and makes them want to leave quickly, or they linger, they stay with it, and it unravels.

How does that manifest in your new show, Woven? The works are wall-based soft sculptures in different iterations of weaving, using both fur and metallic materials. Some of the fabrics are vintage, and I also had some camouflage patterned fur. The intersection of the history of camouflage with weaving is interesting to me – turning something masculine into something soft and organic.

Some of the fabrics you’ve had stored for over 30 years... I never throw anything away! I’ve got hundreds of bags of off-cuts [in my studio] and I really wanted to see them again. It’s also about economics – recycling materials, not creating waste. And when I found these old materials it took me back to my past.

Woven by Kathy Temin is at Anna Schwartz Gallery until March 29