KELSEY RATH

SKT Gallery is pleased to welcome back video artist Kelsey Rath and her piece, Be Kind, Rewind in the virtual instalment of our exhibition RestART the Planet. Kelsey has previously exhibited with SKT in our past exhibition Fake Space and is now addressing environmental issues with her new video. 

Kelsey is a self-taught video artist from Denver, USA, where she currently lives and produces professional video content. She began her artistic career first using Photoshop and then moving into After Effects and Premiere Pro, where she fell in love with programs and creating moving images using stock images. Kelsey manipulates the stock images and videos to give them entirely new meaning and purpose. The artist enjoys looking at each photo from an unanticipated angle and through her collage-style creations allows the viewer to see it unexpectedly too. For Kelsey, the weirder and the more unconventional, the better. 

Be Kind, Rewind takes its literal name from the, now vintage, process of rewinding videos or tapes before returning them to a rental store, so that the next viewer can enjoy it from the beginning. However, Kelsey, fitting with the theme for RestART the Planet, addressing how everyone should do their bit to leave the Planet better for the next generation, be kind, and reverse the effects of pollution. The cassette player can be seen as how life and all of our actions ‘play out’, continuing despite the changing environment around it. At the beginning of the video, the environment surrounding the cassette player is dark and smog-ridden. As the tape and video reach near to their end the environment around changings, turning brighter with vines emerging. This shows that as it becomes closer to the time to pass the tape on it is left in better condition than it was found, with the hope that this positive change continues from listener to listener.  

Kelsey hopes that, Be Kind, Rewind inspires people to think now what they can do to make a positive impact on the environment for the future. As SKT partners with WhereFrom, a tree-planting organisation, Kelsey contribution will ensure a tree planted, helping rewind her impact. 

You can find more of Kelsey’s work through her Instagram, @krathvid and be sure to check out Kelsey’s interview on SKT Talks. 

RestART the Planet will be running on the SKT website until January 5th. Be sure to check out all our artists and our progress planting trees with WhereFrom.

[By Sophie Butterfield]