Karla Black

I really wish I could see this Karla Black work. I think it's quite like a large pocket holding paint, soap, moisturising cream, nail varnish and even Cif! Although it's evident that the materials she uses are partially chosen for the cultural implications and intriguing references that they evoke in the viewer, another aspect of them is that they are everyday materials and materials that she may have at hand. Black's working process sounds quite intuitive and as though she unconsciously explores the materials, then allows her conscious mind to consider them from a different analytical view. Black says in her video that because her works are shown in a gallery and there is the cultural custom not to touch, her works which are very textural or tactile, mean that the viewer has to transform their desire to touch and instead touch with their mind. This makes me think about Merleau-Ponty's description of the flesh as our experience of this world through tangible, visible and experiential. I think I want to re-read 'The Intertwining, The Chiasm' and have another think about how it relates.
Kettles Yard, Karla Black