Karla Black’s work I really admire because of the draping style that is prevalent in her work, drawing from artistic traditions such as expressionists painting, land art, performance, to formalism.
Her sculpture are always large scale and are created from everyday substances such as cellophane and paper to create these abstract formations.
According to the Saatchi Gallery, ‘Black chooses her media for their tactile aesthetic appeal: the familiarity of the texture of cellophane or the scent of cosmetics bridges the experience of tangible matter with the intimacy of memory or the subconscious. ‘
Gallery, S. (2015). Karla Black – Artist’s Profile – The Saatchi Gallery. [online] Saatchigallery.com. Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/karla_black.htm
Similarities between my own work and Black’s is the physicallity involved in both. To create either work is to interact with it on every level, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It is a very intense and intimate process that has a large scale result at the end. Both are performances as both can be seen to have had a vast amount of time and energy put into both.
I admire the draping style in her work because it is something that I want to experiment with in my own work, as explained in a previous post. I have experimented to a small extent with the layered of my work and the different positioning and colours but haven’t taken it to such a large scale, Yet.
