Found in Translation

Artist’s Statement – Katey O’Sullivan

In Found in Translation, Australian artist Katey O’Sullivan presents a deeply felt response to her time as artist-in-residence at the University of Vaasa. This body of work gathers subtle impressions of place — not only a literal documentation, but an abstract, sensory mapping, charting a remembered topography shaped by weather, light, landscape, and human exchange.

O’Sullivan’s process begins in conversation. Handwritten and spoken words collected from the university community, serve as conceptual seeds that echo throughout the work in layered, non-verbal ways. Her practice embraces slowness and sustainability: incorporating vintage fabric, inherited thread, and found objects, she constructs works that carry both personal and material histories. The act of making becomes one of translation — from language to gesture, from impressions to tactile form.

The series includes mixed media on board, photography, textile works on paper, and a handmade artist book — each piece forming part of an intimate archive of connection and memory.

There is a deep respect here for the overlooked and the in-between — for the ways we come to know a place not through landmarks, but through mood, texture, and encounter. Nature, too, plays a subtle but persistent role. The Nordic light, shifting weather, and expenses of sea and sky in the region, inform the palette and composition.  As a visitor, O’Sullivan brings a new perspective; yet her gentle, observant approach allows the work to resonate beyond geography, inviting viewers to consider their own relationships with memory and place.

In slowing down and paying close attention to the everyday, O’Sullivan reminds us that connection can be found in the smallest of things, and that beauty often lives in the quietest spaces.  She invites viewers not to observe, but to feel; not to decode, but to allow the mind drift.