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 a multidisciplinary artist known for her richly textural sculpture and relief panels of handmade wool felt. Her sculpted textiles investigate the relationship between body and material, the process of transformation, and systems in natural and social environments.

     

    Kún’s work is featured in public and private collections worldwide, from the Arcata, CA Community Health Center and Sisters Oregon Public Library to luxury accommodations in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Her work was featured in the cover of Fiber Art Now (2023) and American Craft (2022). Kún has taught her unique techniques globally online and at in-person master workshops in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and North America.

     

    Though known as a fiber artist, Kún forged her artistic mettle apprenticing as a woodworker and upholsterer during her early twenties, dedicating thirteen years to building mortise-and-tenon-constructed furniture from reclaimed wood. Respect for materials and craftsmanship in their reverential structure is planted deep in her practice. Kún’s newest work returns to the materials and techniques that reference her early identity as a builder and craftsman. By recognizing similar tensions within herself and the human experience, the work embodies a space where strength and fragility coexist.

     

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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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