Catherine

Khamnouane

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Bravo Zulu (2024)

Steam-bent ash, milk paint, acrylic paint, gold leaf, wax








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Blue-on-Blue (2024)

Black ash, poplar, milk paint, cherry pits, sewing pins, basswood veneer, cherry veneer, mahogany veneer








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First Strike (2024)

Found objects, oriented strand board (OSB), detritus, sawdust








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Half-Staff (2024)


Canvas, Japanese juniper branch, steel









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Pax Americana (2022)

Canvas, gutter elbow, grass, organic matter, sand, water



In its 54 years of service in the United States Army,
Boeing CH-47D Chinook “My Old Lady” long symbolized
the destruction and salvation of military might.
Over the course of the installation,
a sack of increasingly rancid water “lactates” steadily
onto corresponding detritus below: ensuring life, then death.



 





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With Love! (2020)












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Family Style (2020)

A Sunday Supper Club event hosted by Waller Gallery in Baltimore, MD








 


     





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Taproot (2019)



TAPROOT synthesizes two polarizing experiences of being both
brown and Asian in a country that historically neglects racial nuance.
Suspended between their parents’ culture and US mainstream culture,
the two artists embody distinct perspectives: one of assimilation and one
of frequent migration between continents. TAPROOT argues that what is
manmade is natural: through the lens of various natural systems,
Catherine and Samiha [Alam] discuss transplantation, consumption,
and geographical boundedness.







  




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Capillary Bowl (2019)

Detail view - TAPROOT

White oak, ready-made objects, atmospheric moisture, imported Jasmine tea







Capillary Bowl, a reference to the fantastical perpetual motion machine,
cold brews Jasmine tea. Over time, water is taken out of the air and
syphoned through a series of distillation techniques.

The brewed tea that collects below becomes a record
of what has transpired in the room the machine occupies.










  
 





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Next Door (2019)

Detail view - TAPROOT
Friendly’s Fried Chicken, oriented strand board, found objects




In 12 whole wings with salt-pepper-hot sauce,
I consume Baltimore as the gallery audience consumes me.











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Scout’s Honor (2018)

Installation view

“On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;  to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."






When my parents immigrated to the United States in the 1980’s,
they followed a wave of others just like them: young, hopeful, hailing
from one of the numerous Asian countries that, in the past century,
had felt the military influence of the place they sought refuge. With them,
they brought values and mythos filtered through the reality warp of
language barriers and cultural clashes.

Voices unravel a knitting, a salute unfurls paper towels and the smell
of frying meat wafts to the tune of the National Anthem. Scout’s Honor
leans on quiet but telling symbols:
1) SPAM
2) phytoremediation
3) The Kissinger Report, shuffling familial fables into the deck of a pockmarked national history.












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Scout’s Honor (2018)

Detail view
Ash wood, enamel pin, sunflower microgreens











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SPAM (2017)

Installation view
Cast porcelain, laser engraved plexiglass








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Normalcy Machine 01 (2017)

OSB, found objects, Rocky Mountain High by John Denver










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