Now, At The Latest
Karla Black
Object, polythene, plaster powder, powder paint and thread
ca. 70 × 70 × 36 cm
2012
Acquisition 2013
Inv. No. 0255
The Scottish artist is known for her exhibitions where pale carpets of pigments are seen alongside plastic, hanging objects. These are stagings that shift strangely between a sweet world of pastels and a dirty work atmosphere. Black creates artificial landscapes, both pulverized chemical and cloying archaeological idyll. The floor installations, that can be up to the size of a handball court, are flat and consist of powder. The hanging sculptures are similarly fragile. Sometimes a shift in the air, like one from a visitor passing by, is enough to disrupt their still and mute floating. All of her objects show chalk white, as if Karla Blackʼs artistic projects stand in contrast to her name. The plaster dust makes the objects fragile and papery, dusty and dry. The object in the evn collection is a wad of plastic foil. The color is pale and shimmers glassily. A red tone penetrates the core. The sculpture appears mysterious through its accident-prone tranquility. Is it a garbage mobile, a little cloud, an ecological totem, a frozen planet? The regress to the border crossings between handling and letting-be, between the formal conditions of the incidental and unstable states, make observation in quiet contemplation and a profound look at existential inquiry possible.
Thomas D. Trummer, 2015 (translation: Virginia Dellenbaugh)
Exhibitions
Now, At The Latest. videos and other attractions from the evn collection, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, 2015
Publications
evn collection. 95–2015 Jubilee, Vienna 2015, p. 71 ff
Now, At the Latest, Maria Enzersdorf 2015, p. 28