Karla Black at Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art review by Jenny Judova – ends 24 June 2012

Installation image, Karla Black at GoMA part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012 Courtesy of the artist Photo credit: Ruth Clark All works courtesy of Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne.

The first thing I thought walking into the show was ‘Wow!’ Karla Black is known for big scale works yet this one takes up the whole Grand Ground floor exhibition space which is around the size of a regular gym. The installation is site specific and was made by last year’s Turner Prize nominee for the Glasgow International Festival, however, luckily for the city the work of one of its talented residents will be on display until the 24 of June.

Even before you walk in to the gallery it is easy to guess who is the artist on display at Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). The cloud-like cellophane formations are well seen through the windows from outside. Bellow these formations, is what looks like a gigantic layered cake made out of different types of saw dust.

The work presented is Karla Black at her best: it is monumental yet fragile; during my visit an old gentleman destroyed one corner just by brushing against it. It combines natural material (sawdust) and everyday toiletries such as eye shadows, bronzer, cream and many more. And not only is its meaning a mystery but so is its execution. For me it will always be a wonder how she managed to shape sawdust in to a perfect rectangle.

Installation image, Karla Black at GoMA part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012 Courtesy of the artist Photo credit: Ruth Clark All works courtesy of Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne.

The work is not only imaginative in its self but is open to viewer’s interpretation. It allows us to ‘fill in the gaps’. My own mind wandered from layered cakes of all kind to seeing the sawdust as a sandy beach and the cellophane as gentle cloud formations.  Then after encountering intentional holes at the sides of the work with various objects scattered on the floor next to them the work turned in to a Trojan horse with little pigmy-like creatures hiding inside, ready to burst out and invade.  I have to admit that the idea of ‘bursting out and invading’ gave the work an Alien turn for me.

The imagination, the humor, the tension of magnitude and fragility make it in my view one of the best Karla Black pieces and certainly one of the most memorable I have seen in Glasgow.

Gallery Of Modern Art
Royal Exchange Square
Glasgow
G1 3AH

Tel: 0141 287 3050

Admission: Free

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Written by Jenny Judova

I am currently finishing my undergraduate MA in History of Art and Religious studies at the University of Glasgow. During my studies I spent the summers as an intern in London and New York contemporary art galleries, and my third year organising two pop up art shows in Glasgow.
Next year I will be back at the University of Glasgow doing a Masters research on The Devil in Art.