Artist Cassia Kite has lived on the Gulf Coast of the Sunshine State for more than a decade, but her work remains rooted in the family farm near Auburn, Nebraska.r
“I’m just so thankful of my upbringing. I love Nebraska,” Kite says. “I love the farm life. That’s probably the one reason why I’m constantly creating about it. I’m just homesick. I miss home.”
Her latest project, “Soundstitches,” captures the vibrant colors of her family farm in what Kite describes as an interdisciplinary, multimedia installation, and performance piece. Inspired by folk art, Kite created embroidered farm scenes. She then translated those images to music by assigning a musical note to each color, mapping out the music from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. The work leaves vast room for interpretation for the artists who engage with it.
This summer, Kite’s project will be featured at KANEKO as part of the fourth annual Under the Radar Festival (July 5-8). Her embroidery will be on display while the corresponding music is performed by professional musicians and a dancer. Festival director Amanda DeBoer Bartlett is excited to bring artists together to interpret Kite’s work, and she explains the piece will be presented in a way that is immersive so “the audience can walk around and experience the performance.”
“Since her piece is so open and improvisation-based, there won’t be a huge rehearsal process,” Bartlett says.
On its face, this project might seem a little outside Kite’s wheelhouse. She studied painting and sculpting in college and isn’t comfortable calling herself a folk artist, even though she loves folk art traditions. She took piano lessons for a short time as a child, and she played percussion instruments in a middle school band, but she doesn’t consider herself a musician. When it comes to “Soundstitches,” she says she’s more of a “translator” than a composer, converting colors into sound.
“It makes me feel very vulnerable in a way, too, and I think that’s good for growth,” Kite says. “This is about as honest a form as I’ll ever get.”
The project may be out of her comfort zone, but it’s also built on what she knows best—the rich hues and homespun imagery of Nebraska.
“Everything I create is a personal narrative,” she says.
Kite is an arts educator who teaches at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, but she returns to Nebraska during the summer months. Her work is on display at Anderson O’Brien Fine Art, and she’ll have a solo exhibition at the Schoolhouse Art Gallery in Brownville, Nebraska, starting in June. For Under the Radar, she’ll be one of several Nebraska-connected artists participating in the festival this summer. Bartlett explains that out of 30 to 40 acts each year, they try to reserve at least half of those spots for artists with ties to the state.
Kite is excited to have her work presented at KANEKO, especially in collaboration with Under the Radar. “I could not think of a better platform for this to happen,” she says, “because it really unifies the whole subject of the work.”
Visit cassiakite.com for more information.
This article was printed in the May/June 2017 edition of Omaha Magazine.
