Catie Newell develops material and optical assemblies that amplify our connection to a living and spinning earth. As the founding principal of the architecture, art and research practice *Alibi Studio and Professor of Architecture at University of Michigan’s Taubman College, Newell's research and creative practice has been widely recognized for exploring design construction and materiality in relationship to location and geography. The work ranges in scale from buildings to products and explores the world most deeply with material systems and optical captures. *Alibi Studio deploys material explorations, illumination and darkness, and novel modes of occupation, all created through rigorous prototyping and custom fabrication tools. The process of fabrication is a vital act in the work, often amplifying material effects and situational influences, intertwining the processes of making and design across the entire project. Her work has been shown in secret venues in Detroit, in the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale, in night-sensitive museum solo shows, and in the landscape of rural Michigan. Newell is a Lucas Fellow, a Kresge Artist Fellow, a WOJR/Civitella Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
Statement of practice:
Using site-specific installations and photography as the main mediums of my practice, I re-present existing spaces through an obscuring of the relevant embedded materials. I deploy material manipulation, illumination and darkness, and implications of occupation to intervene in a space where something unanticipated has already happened. The materials and their tectonic are chosen for their relevance to the site and the history they infuse. The process of fabrication is a vital act in the work, often amplifying realities and identities of the site through their interpretation or ethics. My work seeks to make the familiar unfamiliar, unsettling our understanding of the space and its histories. Each installation carefully balances being an anomaly to its setting with a deep resonance to the conditions that constructed it. Often ephemeral, the works address time in the registration of the present moment and in its short lifespan.
*Alibi Studio is joyously on the run, and currently fabricating more endeavors.