Kate Just is an American-born Australian visual artist. Since 2002, Just has created an expansive body of visual art work in a diversity of media including knitting, resin, clay, collage and photo-media. A focal point in her practice is the development of feminist representations of the body and womanhood that embrace embodied, subjective perspectives. The use of knitting across works casts craft as a highly engaging sculptural medium, a poetic or political tool. Just has exhibited her work widely across Australia in public, commercial and artist run initiatives including the Heide Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Australia and Gertrude Contemporary. She has undertaken a number of international residencies including the Australia Council Barcelona Studio and the KREMS, AIR residency in Krems, Austria and will undertake an Asialink residency at Sanskriti Foundation in New Delhi in late 2016.
During her residency at Youkobo, Kate is continuing to work on her current, ongoing series of knitted self-portraits of feminist artists and artworks from around the globe, entitled Feminist Fan - with a specific focus on Japanese artists. Conceptually reflecting Just’s signature media of wool, each selected image features an artist or artist group using clothing, costuming and adornment as a form of self-expression, or to challenge and expand social restrictions.

Just has also been spending her time researching and connecting with other female artists in Japan. Her residency will culminate in an exhibition that offers snapshot of selected emergent and established feminist art practice arising in Japan and beyond. Entitled Feminist Fan in Japan and Friends, the one week exhibition will feature a number of Just’s intensive, lovingly crafted, hand knitted portraits shown alongside the work of three other artists and a collective art group. Kotoe Ishii (Japan) will present a recent performative video work, reflecting her interest in female embodiment and psychological expression. The globally active Tomorrow Girls Troop (Japan / Korea / USA) will wallpaper an area of Youkobo with their recent political posters, placards and videos, interrogating women's representation in media, legal restrictions as they apply to married women, and encouraging female solidarity and community. Kasumi Iwama (Japan) will exhibit an endearing sculptural work that draws on Japanese female icon Hello Kitty's desirable traits of cuteness and ‘international flair’ as a means to construct an oblique and intimate self-portrait. YU Shuk Pui Bobby (Hong Kong), fresh from a residency at Chiyoda Art Space in Tokyo, will present a squishy and inviting floor sculpture and a sealed publication that contends with the objectification of the female body through subjective re-inhabiting.

Date	2016.01.05 - 2016.02.29
Place	AIR-C
Website	http://www.katejust.com/