Commissioned Essay: Two-Stage Reading of Three Abstract Paintings

Professional writer sought — October 2026

katmap projects is currently seeking a professional writer with published work and an existing grounding in Jungian/analytical or depth psychology for a commissioned essay on three abstract paintings by Kate Trafeli.

The project uses a two-stage process: an initial reading made without titles or contextual information. This is to be followed by a second reading after the relevant histories of the works are provided to the writer. The finished essay will be approximately 1,000 words and published here with full authorship credit.

The piece is conceived as an independent interpretive essay, rather than catalogue or promotional writing. The essay project is intended as the beginning of a broader line of enquiry.

The full brief, commissioning fee, and short application can be found here.

Artist and writer Valerie Grove was one of the artists selected for the first KATMAPPED exhibition, 'You Are Here'.  Written independently and without commission from KATMAPPED, Grove's review offers a fascinating response to both the exhibition and its online presentation. Grove writes:

"I have never reviewed an exhibition that I haven’t been in the physical presence of. This changes everything - you can’t walk around the works, move close in, step back, see them from across the room or from different angles. You can’t directly perceive colours, textures, shapes and even smells. This makes it much harder to have that physical and emotional response that can occur when you are directly exposed to a work of art.

There is also the factor of that solid gallery environment itself - the design and atmosphere of it, the light and how the works are placed within it. None of that applies here and the tool for leaning in and stepping back is a digital zoom. This means that the key factor in the presentation of this exhibition, and indeed any online exhibition, is the quality of the ‘gallery’ website, although the size and quality of the device you are viewing from is also a factor.  

Over the past few Covid months I have looked at several online exhibitions and have become quite irritated by the way in which many of them are presented. Those that try and replicate the gallery experience are the worst.... So the first thing to say about this exhibition is that ..[i]t is clean, with a simple layout on a white background, absolute stillness and zero visual or audio distraction from the large images that stand out with crystal clarity as a consequence.

...

The exhibition opens with the three artists who received the curators' choice awards: Henry Burnett, Jon Halls and Tahira Noreen. I think all three are very well chosen. I particularly love the idea behind Henry Burnett’s Last Map. It works on so many levels that assemble themselves into layers of thought as you gaze in wonder at the sublime and delicate objects in front of you. Tahira Noreen’s work are other sublime pieces in which the originality of the idea tells a complete story of time and humanity, embodied in complex and beautiful wall sculptures. These work as exhibits online because you can get a sense of the entirety of them and see them close up. Jon Hall’s illustrated geographical story of London’s Green Belt, Drawing a Modern Myth, on the other hand, really needs to be seen in a gallery. It is very hard to appreciate what would be the impact of its scale in space, and to see its remarkable detail.

The review goes on to discuss several individual works throughout the exhibition before developing into a crowdsourced digital visitors’ book, bringing in responses from other viewers and artists. With the platform now archived, this review is a valuable and important record of the works' selected, the exhibition itself and the impressions those works made on viewers.

Read the full original review at Nature Strikes Back →

Quoted text © Valerie Grove. All rights in the original review remain with the author.