Drop and Puddle
interactive sound installation
2025,
dimensions variable metal shape, motion sensor, mini speaker
Rooted in two contrasting landscapes—the echoing gorge of the Tamina in eastern Switzerland and the quiet puddles outside Fabrikculture—this work brings together field recordings and sculptural forms. Water sounds from the Taminaschlucht return in the installation, shifting with the viewer’s presence. Metal shapes echo puddles, allowing the raw force of the gorge and the stillness of rain to meet in sound and form.
Nine Entrances (Cenote Studies)
video, soundscape
2025, 7min 15s
Submerged landscapes and explorations of the subconscious: multilayered, hidden, and complex, like a cave system. Nine Entrances by Katherine Newton is composed of underwater footage from nine cenotes across Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The video captures the movement of water, suspended particles, stone textures, and shifting light. Accompanied by a sound composition built entirely from underwater recordings at each site, the work evokes the natural resonance and atmospheric depth of these subterranean landscapes. * Cenotes are natural sinkholes found throughout Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, formed by collapsed limestone bedrock. Once sacred gateways to the underworld in Maya cosmology, they remain ecologically vital and are classified as open, semi-open, or closed.
Incomplete Maps (Cenote Studies)
layered prints on paper
2025, dimensions variable
Emerging from the same journey as Nine Entrances, this work extends Katherine’s exploration of cenotes through sound, image, text, and paper. Each layer holds fragments— underwater stills, immediate reflections, and dreamlike impressions—mirroring the subconscious through overlapping strata. Inspired by incomplete maps and research diagrams, the piece traces a personal cartography of descent, marking the nine cenotes entered and documented amid a landscape still largely unmapped.
Katherine Newton (*1987, Munich) Trinational artist—English by nationality, raised in Germany, and based in Switzerland. Her multidisciplinary practice spans sound, performance, video, animation, installation, and conceptual work. Growing up in social housing among musicians shaped her sensitivity to rhythm, vulnerability, and collective experience. Creates environments where sculptural, performative, and interactive elements invite psychological and emotional exploration. Recent works include Nine Entrances (2025), Drop and Puddle (2025), and Incomplete Maps (Cenote Studies) 2025.
Drop and Puddle
Instalación sonora interactiva
2025, dimensiones variables
Forma metálica, sensor de movimiento, mini altavoz
Arraigada en dos paisajes contrastantes —la garganta resonante del Tamina en el este de Suiza y los charcos silenciosos a las afueras de Fabrikculture—, esta obra reúne grabaciones de campo y formas escultóricas. Los sonidos del agua de la Taminaschlucht regresan en la instalación, transformándose con la presencia del espectador. Las formas metálicas hacen eco de los charcos, permitiendo que la fuerza bruta de la garganta y la quietud de la lluvia se encuentren en el sonido y la forma.
Nine Entrances (Cenote Studies)
Video, paisaje sonoro
2025, 7 min 15 s
Paisajes sumergidos y exploraciones del subconsciente: multicapa, ocultos y complejos, como un sistema de cuevas. Nueve Entradas, de Katherine Newton, se compone de metraje subacuático de nueve cenotes a lo largo de la Península de Yucatán en México. El video captura el movimiento del agua, las partículas en suspensión, las texturas de la piedra y los cambios de luz. Acompañada por una composición sonora construida íntegramente a partir de grabaciones submarinas en cada sitio, la obra evoca la resonancia natural y la profundidad atmosférica de estos paisajes subterráneos.
* Los cenotes son pozos naturales que se encuentran en toda la Península de Yucatán, formados por el colapso del lecho de roca caliza. Antaño portales sagrados al inframundo en la cosmología maya, siguen siendo ecológicamente vitales y se clasifican como abiertos, semiabiertos o cerrados.
Incomplete Maps (Cenote Studies)
Impresiones por capas sobre papel
2025, dimensiones variables
Surgida del mismo viaje que Nueve Entradas, esta obra extiende la exploración de Katherine sobre los cenotes a través del sonido, la imagen, el texto y el papel. Cada capa contiene fragmentos —fotogramas submarinos, reflexiones inmediatas e impresiones oníricas— que reflejan el subconsciente mediante estratos superpuestos. Inspirada en mapas incompletos y diagramas de investigación, la pieza traza una cartografía personal del descenso, marcando los nueve cenotes recorridos y documentados en medio de un paisaje que, en gran medida, sigue sin cartografiar.
*Katherine Newton (1987, Múnich) Artista trinacional: inglesa por nacionalidad, criada en Alemania y radicada en Suiza. Su práctica multidisciplinaria abarca sonido, performance, video, animación, instalación y trabajo conceptual. Crecer en viviendas de interés social rodeada de músicos moldeó su sensibilidad hacia el ritmo, la vulnerabilidad y la experiencia colectiva. Crea entornos donde los elementos escultóricos, performativos e interactivos invitan a la exploración psicológica y emocional. Sus obras recientes incluyen Nueve Entradas (2025), Gota y Charco (2025) y Mapas Incompletos (Estudios de Cenotes) (2025).
About the exhibition Unbound Realms in FABRIKculture
Unbound Realms is a transdisciplinary exhibition curated by Ileana Ramírez Romero at FABRIKculture in Hégenheim, France (Sept 27-Nov 2, 2025) conceived as a porous constellation rather than a fixed narrative, the exhibition brings together artists whose practices traverse borders—geographic, linguistic, and symbolic. The works inhabit a space of latency and transformation, where images, texts, and gestures resist closure and instead invite unfolding.
Through cinematic fragments, poetic inscriptions, and tactile interventions, Unbound Realms explores the thresholds between visibility and invisibility, memory and materiality, fiction and testimony. The exhibition foregrounds diasporic perspectives and the marvelous real, drawing from Latin American literary traditions, migratory imaginaries, and the politics of translation.
Rather than presenting a unified theme, Unbound Realms offers a terrain of encounter—where the viewer becomes witness to what is not yet fully formed, and where creation is understood as a relational, anticipatory act.
Unbound Realms was developed in close collaboration and the participation of the artists:
Axel Töpfer & Jo Preußler
Daniela Brugger
Javier Grajales
Joana Amora
Juan José Olavarría
Katherine Newton
Luisanna González Quattrini
Raily Yance
Raphael Reichert
Rubén Bañuelos
Suwon Lee
Parque Industrial
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