Royal College of Art, UK
K. Yoland is a transdisciplinary artist and practice-based PhD student.
Current research explores site-specific art interventions as modes of
resistance to territoriality and future forms of colonisation.
Recent work has focused on the Southwest deserts of the United States,
visiting sites of military training, interplanetary observation, surveillance and
data farms in these regions. Navigating state and corporate geographies,
Yoland’s installations and performative actions reveal and test the existing
spatial controls and search for opportunities for free movement inside these
systems. Working on private and public land, Yoland’s working methods
instigate encounters between systems of control and instances of spatial
complexity in which empathy might emerge. Research is influenced by
fictioning, absurdity, spatial theory, radical ecology, critical race studies, and
contemporary readings of hospitality across public space.
Incorporating installation with live-performance, video, photography, objectmaking
and text, Yoland has worked with both trained professionals and
volunteers (including soldiers, border patrol and oil riggers). Yoland has also
lectured in socio-politically engaged art practice and expanded cinema (US/
UK/French universities). Supporting free education and open dialogue,
Yoland produced/hosted Constructive Forces (Resonance FM London) and
Talk at Ten (NPR affiliated Marfa Public Radio, West Texas), interviewing
artists, politicians, activists, and scientists.
Secondment Destination
Berlin – September 2023
