Kaia Selene
About
Kaia Selene is an American artist and activist whose work explores barriers to authentic connectivity erected by Western cultural conditioning. Her diverse practice primarily focusses on performance and wearable art and has roots in Surrealist methods, Butoh and the occult. Aspiring toward collective healing, it often includes otherworldly imagery and either a spirit of defiant whimsy, or transformative ritual.
She employs various methods to connect viewers on a subversive level, aiming to help unravel conditioning which blocks embodied living. Her pieces utilize an array of media to bring conceptual visions to form, turning them into experiential moments. a process demanding constant study and innovation.
Media include wearable art, sculpture, painting, puppetry, music, writing and movement. Many performances also involve an edible element.
Born in Taos, New Mexico, she's primarily a self taught artist and a second generation witch, child of poet and musician Cathryn McCracken and rock climber musician Richard McCracken.
Her dedicated creative practice has led to informal studies spanning 30 years and 20 cities. She's moved to become a gallery owner, Butoh dancer, mask maker, and herbalist.
An interview about her work appears in Women of the Underground: Art: Cultural Innovators Speak for Themselves, by Zora Von Burden.
