Woolwich arachnophobe Kate Khoury has turned to stained glass to address her fear of the common house spider.

The result, "It's probably more afraid of you.", is Kate's third work in stained glass and it depicts a 90:1(≈) scaled up version of the female of the species, t.domestica, poised, in wait, in her funnel web. (panel size 1430mm x 1110mm). "About a hundred times bigger! Yep, that's how large they feel when they're coming at me!" Kate says, laughing. “I fell through a loft floor once my reaction was so bad!”.

Anticipating the current spider infested season, she says she thought a lot about her irrational fear and has come to the conclusion that, in a sense, it's a way of avoiding ever completely growing up. “While I'm petrified of spiders, I'll always be dependent on other people getting rid of them for me."

Thinking it could be a fun way to try and 'treat' herself, whilst evaluating, in real terms, the therapeutic merits of her artistic process, she got to confronting the hairy subject using methods traditional to stained glass and an approach akin to exposure therapy (for treating phobias) and started to work on desensitizing herself. “Glass is a compelling material in itself; working with light is exciting and therapeutic, and this made confronting my phobia a much more appealing prospect.”

Has it worked? “It definitely has helped, yes. I wouldn't say I'm cured yet, but I've really come a long way. Abject horror and disgust have given way to a real appreciation and a sense of what is beautiful and intriguing about spiders.”

Kate, who grew up in the South East of London, says her window is actually designed to be approached from afar because she has always imagined the spider nestled by its funnel in the corner of a fully glazed 'web' wall, as we, its potential dinner look on. "I think that would be something great to experience."

Studio 20 Trinity Wharf, Second Floor Studio and Arts
Harrington Way, Woolwich
London.
SE18 5NR

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