Kat Flyn

Lives and works in San Diego, CA, USA

Artist statement

I describe myself as a white Anti-racist Feminist artist. My sympathies almost always reside with the underdog, so my works highlight rigged institutionalized aspects of our culture. Strictly speaking I am an assemblage sculptor because I construct more than assemble my works. My process is to search out Americana artifacts, collectibles, and wood carvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when I use artifacts from earlier periods, my subject is almost always about contemporary America. My purpose is to demonstrate that aspects of our national psyche – social injustice, racism, sexism, climate crisis and violence – exist in the present but have their seeds in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black racist stereotype toys (All Aboard, Bullpen, and Greek Chorus) I use in many of my pieces were often crafted by a white person. By using such artifacts I ask: What kind of society produces such items in the first place?

Artwork

• Come & get 'em, 2025. Mixed
• Due Process, 2025. Mixed
• Reality Bowling, 2025. Mixed
• Walk-ins Welcome, 2025. Mixed
• Epstein House, 2025. assemblage Sculpture
• Under His Eye, 2025. wood sculpture
• Woke, 2023. wood
• Nobody, 2023. Vaudeville comedian & actor Bert Williams was an African American performer during the early part of the 1900s. Williams was a key figure in the development of Black entertainment: “In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were commonplace, he became the first Black person to take a lead role on the Broadway stage and did much to push back racial barriers during his 3 decade long career.” For much of his career Bert Williams was banned from performing in many US theaters . Ironically, he was not allowed to perform at a theater on 125th street in Harlem, formerly known as Hurtig & Seamon Vaudeville and Burlesque, which later became the most famous Theater for emerging Black performers in the country, The Apollo in 1934. His biggest hit recording was “Nobody”.
• American Story - 1776, 2023. wood
• American Story - Tulsa May 30, 19 21, 2023. The Tulsa Riots, also known as the Black Wall Street Massacre erupted on May 31, 1921 the day after the title of this piece, in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, at the time one of the wealthiest Black communities in the United States. The devastation was immense - 35 square city blocks burned and destroyed; hundreds were hospitalized and scores were killed. The horror and disruption that was about to descend on this prosperous Black middle class community is what I am highlighting in this piece.
• American Story 1875, 2023. Antiue primitive shoeshine box with antique painted wood "Dancing dan" racist minstrel toy inside. Hand carving in stone of elderly man in far-back. Antique tintype, handmade primitive bank in shape of a cabin.
• Detour, 2023. Society is placing a major roadblock in front of the lives of women who now that Roe has been overturned, are pressured to carry unplanned pregnancies to term.
• Choice, 2020. No issue has been more contentious in America over the past 50 years than abortion. The Supreme Court has been at the center of this dispute since it ruled on Roe v. Wade, giving women the constitutional right to have control over their own bodies. Ironically, that constitutional right long held by women, has been overturned as a conservative woman, Amy Barrett, joined a court dominated by a group of conservative male justices.
• Foreclosure, 2017. Two views of the American Dream of home ownership are mounted on opposite sides of the table, demonstrating the dichotomy of that dream in our society.
• Karen, 2021. “Karen” is a derogatory term that refers to an outspoken white Woman who acts in an entitled, self-centered, racist or sexist manner, who often directs her anger at minorities. Karens, being white, do possess an exalted position in our society, but they pay a price. In this work, despite her prejudices, I take a quasi-sympathetic view of the stress that comes with being Karen. Choices open to her are limiting relative to white men. Her power is more ceremonial than real. The “glass ceiling” & sexual harassment are still things she bumps up against constantly. These stresses explain some of her petty self-righteous and domineering behavior, and I can't help but wonder if the term Karen can apply to most white people, not just women, at one time or another. Ironically, the term is also used to shame outspoken white women into silence.
• Frankenstein, 2022. Trans youth - body of a boy/girl, mind of a monster, soul of an unearthly thing. Prejudice against transgender people is widespread.
• Ozymandias, 2020.  It's not only about racism. The movement to remove statues of past slave owners is at root a battle being waged in the present about who gets to define our past's founding narrative.  Arguing about whether statues of Lee, Jefferson or even Washington ought to be removed misses the deeper point that  the entire founding mythology of our nation, represented by such statues,  needs to be updated.
• Blinded by Beauty, 2023. Every year around the world, thousands of animals suffer and die for Beauty product testing. Millions more animals die in other lab tests.
• Death of a Racist Stereotype, 2021. We white Americans are becoming, at long last, increasingly sensitive to how pervasive systemic racism is in our culture. I've spent years creating art often aimed at bringing this message to my fellow white Americans. And yet, even I sometimes come across a stereotype artifact so blatant in its racism that it shocks me. This dancing puppet is disturbing. It screams out the question: what kind of society makes such a thing in the first place?
• Bullpen, 2019. Throughout history the term “Bullpen” referred to various detention facilities, usually ones seriously overcrowded with prisoners. In particular, military prisons were often referred to this way. During the Civil War, Andersonville Prison (Georgia) was called “the Bullpen” by inmates. During WWII, Japanese American citizens were forced into relocation camps also referred to as Bullpens. Overcrowded jails in the 19th century, often filled with union organizers, also earned the title of “Bullpen”. In baseball the seats right over the Bullpen were for the “cheap crowd” –“ three for a quarter crowd”, which when roped off by chicken wire were designated for “colored only” spectators.
• Womens Day, 2022. Old shoeshine box fashioned into a baseball stadium. Photo transfers of vintage baseball photos on sides featuring Toni Stone, first woman to play professional baseball full time and photo transfers of vintage ads on inside of stadium. Handmade scoreboard and stadium sign on top. Old tin sign from a cigarette butt ashcan with a slogan that ridicules the Virginia Slims ad. Eight hand carved and painted wood figures of women with fancy hats. Original photo of unknown woman in baseball uniform with her glove circa 1940-50s.
• Shell Game, 2022. Handmade & painted wood truck with old metal oil can, wood platform with painted ice, handmade resin oil slick, 2 hand carved wood figures in truck and a penguin.
• Divided We Stand, 2021. Boxing ring fashioned out of an old wood box surrounded by an advertisement featuring circus performers. Old hand carved wood boxers, hand painted “Blue versus Red” letters on handmade wood flag
• The Trailer Park, 2018. The election of Donald Trump placed the spotlight on lower class white families. This work lampoons the stereotypes we have of those families. The piece is intentionally whimsical. The point being that until we see beyond superficial (and misleading) stereotypes we have little hope of making progress regarding solving issues related to this, or any, class of individuals
• Last Stand, 2019. This piece was finished right before the 2020 presidential election and references Trump's raucous political rallies, which are designed to whip up his conservative base. Raucous rallies have been part of American culture almost from its inception, but usually they were connected to religious revival events. In our time they have also been used to whip up conservative supporters into a patriotic frenzy, reminiscent of rallies in Nazi Germany.
• Ball's In Your Court, 2020. At some point every generation passes the torch to a younger generation. The implication of what this means can be ascertained by the wide eyed open mouth expression on the young man who just received the news that it's his turn.
• The Great Replacement, 2021. Handmade and painted toy circus wagon, hand carved & painted pink family, hand carved & painted clown, vintage metal toy monkey Hand made & painted “ball toss” advertisement billboard on top.
• 846, 2020. The title references the 8 minute and 46 second video of George Floyd being chocked to death. The video went viral and ignited world wide protests. The enormous outpouring of rage is evidence that George Floyd's death is part of the much broader problem of systemic racism. The exaggerated heel on the boot is meant to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem – that people of color have been crushed beneath the heel of racial injustice for centuries. The Minneapolis police badge and the Police car door sign emphasize the role of police brutality. The stereotype shoeshine box doubles as a jail, where people of color are incarcerated disproportionately to their numbers in America. And the American flag, with its new black border & stripe representing all Americans, is hopefully the future.
• All Aboard, 2021. Systemic racism is so much easier to observe if we step back in time. In this piece, we can easily assume the central figure – the oh so very white guy – believes the scene depicted is the natural order of things. But as we move closer to today, we can see there is a slow train coming around the bend, as more and more of us recognize that the depicted scene is not the natural order of things at all, but is rather the result of cultural decisions we now know as systemic racism. All Aboard.
• Sentinel Species, 2020. It is now 2020 and Covid-19 is loose in the world. Medical personnel are our first line of defense against this out-of-control pandemic. We seem able to provide weapons and protective gear for the police as they battle protesters, who are marching against racial injustice, but not able to provide PPE clothing and other medical equipment for medical personnel in dire need, who are involved literally in a life and death struggle on behalf of us all.
• Stop Police, 2020. “Stop Police” are the words the Police yell when pursuing young black males thru city streets but here it is meant also as instruction for us as a community and as a country to Stop Police violence towards young Black Men.
• In the Line of Fire, 2022. Antique wood produce box with drawer for "Project KGB" game from the 1970's. Vintage suitcase with acrylic front. Backboard box from vintage Russian child's war game, complete with pull-out cannon & wood bullets. Hand carved wood man * woman with suitcases containing their possessions, fleeing war.
• The Greek Chorus, 2020. Like so many others I feel a desire, an obligation even, to add my voice to the chorus of outrage coming from the tens of thousands of protesters in the country right now. For me the best way to do this is thru my art. I call this piece “The Greek Chorus” because we are standing in solidarity and bearing witness with a collective voice against this prolonged form of racial injustice.
• Insurrection, 2021. On January 6, 2021 a mob of insurrectionists invaded our Capitol. Ironically they waved American flags and called themselves “patriots” as they assaulted and defiled The Capitol Building, the sacred icon of our democracy. They claimed they were honoring our Constitution, a document they paid lip service to while ignoring its instructions on peaceful transference of power; their violent uprising – the first of its kind in our history - was in support for a would-be demagogue. We have clearly reached an historical pivot point. We again need to answer the question Abraham Lincoln put to us: Can a Republic founded on the proposition of self governance long endure or shall it perish from the earth?
• The Science is Not Settled, 2020. Of course, the Science is settled with regards to the connection between tobacco and lung cancer. In response to the impact this had on the tobacco industry, big corporations began viewing science and scientist with alarm. Consequently, we now find we can no longer agree on how to respond to current crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Climate Change as conservative forces cast doubt on whether or not the science is settled.
• The Greatest Show on Earth, 2020. It is a sign of an unhealthy society when fringe personalities are increasingly found not on the fringe but in its mainstream. They bring with them ignorance, prejudice and irrational anti-scientific views that are presented as an alternative reality. These views, in normal times, are of no consequence, but have harmful side effects once these individuals are granted positions of political power. It is as if the Side Show at the circus becomes the Main Attraction.
• Visitors, 2020. I like using baseball as a metaphor for America. Here, by constructing and then destructing a “visitors dugout”, I am commenting on the dilapidated state of our immigration policies. Once we were the beacon for immigrants, the world over, inviting them to our shores. No longer.
• Secondary Education, 2020. Originally, literacy was illegal for slaves. After the Civil War, in theory, this was no longer the case. However, because of Jim Crow laws, state funded schools were forbidden to Black children. Nevertheless, rural Black communities supported their own schools. And despite the obstacles, under-equipped Black one room schoolhouses were founded and did bring education to Black children.
• First Lesson, 2020. The stereotype of the Black shoeshine “boy” is well known – that profession being one of the few open to Black Males after 1870, especially in cities. What is less understood is that many Black shoeshine boys and men used their “free” time to study reading, writing, arithmetic, and history.
• Asylum, 2018. This work was in response to the heartbreaking attempts by refugees trying to escape the violence in the middle east. They were crammed into small boats and their attempt to escape often resulted in calamity; and even when they successfully reached foreign shores they were then refused asylum. The inspiration for this work goes back to a sorry episode in US history when we refused asylum to a ship (the St Louis, 1939) loaded with Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi Germany.