About

  • Statement

    Statement

    I create sculptural works of handmade textile that explore human and environmental relationships; How they gain from, form or respond to stress and disorder, and how the intentional gesture of my hand and body on the material engages these reactions. With an interest in material experimentation, I am deeply moved by the transformative qualities of wool and plant fibers, which, when plied correctly, parallel environmental transformations; Birth, fruition, decay.

     

    Material explorations at the center of the work combine the process of felting (in which wool fibers tangle to become textile through a rigorous process of agitation, creating a dense and matted textile) into unlikely materials that respond reversely (delicate woven fabrics, metal, found materials). The result is a complex textile that is dense and robust in one direction, sinewy with ethereal understructure in the other, with the warp threads being consumed into the wool, leaving only a fragile syntax.

     

    Free-hanging and wall mounted sculpture is formed from these textiles to evoke flowing water, changing landscape, and the body in motion. Energy flows through the organic forms and layers slowly reveal through shifting shadows on the undulating textile. They tell stories of human connection and our relationship to the environment, each following a thread revealed through the extensive process of creation.

     

    I experience these transformations physically, pushing two materials, one robust and one fragile, through an extreme process, resulting in an entanglement of divergent reactions. Pushing my body and hands to handle both simultaneously, discovering that I am (we are) equally robust and fragile.

     

  • Bio

     

    Kristy Kún (b. 1974, Omaha, NE) is an Oregon based fiber artist creating finely crafted sculptural and wall relief panels through unique felt making processes that utilize modern industrial textile equipment alongside traditional hand-work methods. Her compositions reveal artistic visions inspired by relationships and evolution in nature, and the fluidity of the materials themselves.

     

    Kún forged her artistic mettle apprenticing as a woodworker and upholsterer during her early twenties while living in Arcata, CA. Dedicating thirteen years to building mortise and tenon constructed furniture from reclaimed wood, her respect for materials and craftsmanship in their reverential structure, is planted deep. Kún’s engineered layouts of complex joinery in fiber and finely detailed surfaces resonate with the craftsmanship of a fine cabinetmaker; While the organic forms that take rise from her hands capture a biomorphic fragility of the living world.

     

    Kún’s work is featured in public and private collections worldwide, from the Arcata, CA Community Health Center and Sister’s Oregon Public Library, to luxury housing and business centers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. She has taught her unique techniques through online and in-person classes, including workshops in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Slovenia, The Netherlands, and of course the US.

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    Kristy Kún and Christian Burchard are collaborators in life and work, each maintaining their private studios on the property where they live, surrounded by the Siskiyou mountains in Southern Oregon. They are curious about various material processes and constantly looking for evolving approaches to their work, and  are connected through a shared passion for collaboration and enduring respect for material and each other’s practice.

  • CV

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