Karla Black
'Many artists have intrinsic connections with their artworks. In Black’s case, there is a real bond between the materials employed and herself, as a human being. By choosing to incorporate domestic, everyday products, her work exudes a sense of existence. As soon as we become aware that the work in front of us is made up of nail polish, jelly or even face wash, our technical or distant ‘viewer’ roles instantly shift as we become engaged with something that is known, human and touching....She...wants the audience to react to them as ‘…physical explorations into thinking, feeling, communicating and relating.’'
'She attaches great importance to materials, and explores their response when shifted from their original purpose. Black encourages physical and material experience over visual and optical form. This is witnessed in the complete ephemerality of her shows, as her work can never be reproduced twice, relating to the site-specificity and uniqueness of each piece within the defined moment of its creation.
Often criticized for her ephemeral work, going against the permanence of traditional sculptures, she accepts that temporality is part of her pieces: acknowledging that everything has an ending....
This is done in order for the audience to absorb the work’s tangible presence with the materials and the space involved over its’ mental or cerebral presence. I was able to feel this when I first saw her sculptures. The raw elements combined with the layout made me want to primitively feel the work instead of analysing it. Black seeks to trigger this inside of us. Because of the audience being in a formal context when viewing artwork (museums or galleries), there is ultimately a distance created: we cannot touch the pieces we witness. With Black’s work, this provokes a frustration, which leads our minds to inevitably imagine the materials and feel the texture of the artwork with our eyes in our profound endeavour to experience it ‘at first hand’.
Behind the purely physical aspect of Black’s work lays something penetrating and palpable. Her relation to psychology can be translated as a self-therapeutic need to produce such substantially rich sculptures. This specific choice of materials clearly shows a natural and simple yet effective way of working. The aspect of having such genuine domestic materials incorporated with traditional art elements makes her work accessible and playful to a wide range of audiences. What is important to retain is her preference for visuals and ‘reaction’ over language, and how words are just a small and insignificant portion of transmission. The rest is left as an experience triggered by our imagination.' (in Scherly, 2016)
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'She attaches great importance to materials, and explores their response when shifted from their original purpose. Black encourages physical and material experience over visual and optical form. This is witnessed in the complete ephemerality of her shows, as her work can never be reproduced twice, relating to the site-specificity and uniqueness of each piece within the defined moment of its creation.
Often criticized for her ephemeral work, going against the permanence of traditional sculptures, she accepts that temporality is part of her pieces: acknowledging that everything has an ending....
This is done in order for the audience to absorb the work’s tangible presence with the materials and the space involved over its’ mental or cerebral presence. I was able to feel this when I first saw her sculptures. The raw elements combined with the layout made me want to primitively feel the work instead of analysing it. Black seeks to trigger this inside of us. Because of the audience being in a formal context when viewing artwork (museums or galleries), there is ultimately a distance created: we cannot touch the pieces we witness. With Black’s work, this provokes a frustration, which leads our minds to inevitably imagine the materials and feel the texture of the artwork with our eyes in our profound endeavour to experience it ‘at first hand’.
Behind the purely physical aspect of Black’s work lays something penetrating and palpable. Her relation to psychology can be translated as a self-therapeutic need to produce such substantially rich sculptures. This specific choice of materials clearly shows a natural and simple yet effective way of working. The aspect of having such genuine domestic materials incorporated with traditional art elements makes her work accessible and playful to a wide range of audiences. What is important to retain is her preference for visuals and ‘reaction’ over language, and how words are just a small and insignificant portion of transmission. The rest is left as an experience triggered by our imagination.' (in Scherly, 2016)
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Cazeaux, C. (2017) Art, Research, Philosophy Available at: https://read.amazon.co.uk/?asin=B06Y6274BS (Accessed: 25 August 2021)
Scherly, E. (2016) Karla Black, penetrating and palpable, Available at: https://wsimag.com/art/20554-karla-black (Accessed: 24 July 2021)
Schwabsky, B. (2007) Karla Black: mother sculpture Available at: https://mapmagazine.co.uk/karla-black-mother-sculpture (Accessed 24 July 2021)
Scherly, E. (2016) Karla Black, penetrating and palpable, Available at: https://wsimag.com/art/20554-karla-black (Accessed: 24 July 2021)
Schwabsky, B. (2007) Karla Black: mother sculpture Available at: https://mapmagazine.co.uk/karla-black-mother-sculpture (Accessed 24 July 2021)