Kate Anderson began her career by studying at the Mary White School of Art in Sydney in 1964. Her teachers included John Olsen, Andrew Sibley and Colin Lanceley. Kate traveled overseas in 1966 and studied at the Academie Julian in Paris. On her return to Australia Kate established the Paddington Print Studio with Charles Bannon. Kate's involvement with the Art Gallery of NSW as a volunteer guide spanned 20 years and she has maintained an interest with Public Programmes helping in the production of popular education kits for children, the first on Asian Art. Her work began with mixed media and exhibitions at the Arden Gallery, Woollahra in 1994, 1995 and 1996. After a 3 year diploma course at the Charlie Sheard School she exhibited at the Maunsell Wickes Gallery, Paddington in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008. After a residency in 2006 with the Red Gate Gallery, Beijing she exhibited at the Red Gate in their 798 Gallery, curated by Tony Scott. Together with Tony Scott in Beijing Kate helped to produce a catalogue for the traveling exhibition, Process Journey, shown in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In September 2008 a body of photographic work will be shown at the Depot 11 Gallery, Dank Street, Waterloo.

Kate Anderson's new photographic works reflect her recent experiences living and working in the city of Beijing at a time of the city's unprecedented transformation. In the first decade of the new millennium a sizable proportion of the city is being made anew. In preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing, like nowhere on earth is buzzing.

Much has been written about the city under its current conditions , the razing of the old buildings and the rising new apartment blocks, the blossoming of unheard of personal wealth, not to mention the outpouring of artistic responses in this hothouse of social and political change.

Given such conditions one might easily wonder how daily life is created, let alone maintained, in the sprawling Chinese capital. To answer this question one need look no further than Anderson's new series which explores the neighbourhoods of Tuanjeihu, in the vicinity of the diplomatic and bar districts, and Bei Gao on the relative outskirts of town. In Anderson's photos what is revealed beyond the ubiquitous tales of change and transformation is a no less tenacious and decidedly Chinese manner of existence. In the laneways and doorways of the apartment blocks Anderson has noted numerous examples of improvised and resourceful existence. Letter boxes that a more affluent society would have long discarded are proudly mended and pressed into service. Alternatively in domestic interiors, ancient Chinese bowls are roughly mended using heavy iron staples with little thought other than robust practicality.

Devoid of human presence, Anderson's work is surprisingly contemplative. Her attention is drawn to the wonderful collisions of domestic activity. Akin to a surrealist collage, these accidents of daily life generate their own random meanings. Studying the encrusted walls of the neighbourhood Anderson has noted examples of stencilled graffiti, such as a Communist Party five point star, which appears in countless guises and colours. At times it accompanies a slogan but mostly its application seems a strangely random event. Anderson's work responds to the pleasures of arbitrarily generated pairings. Her work highlights the uncannily human ability to find beauty in the least likely of places.

Damian Smith, 2008

KA05