Karen Burns
Hawke's Bay is home to a host of talented artists. In this series, Summer Artscape, Linda Hall asks some questions about their work, lifestyle and plans for the future. Today we talk to Karen Burns.
First, tell us a bit about yourself?
I am continually exploring who I am and just when I get an inkling of knowing, it changes. There are so many facets of "me" that I am not really sure who "me" really is.
I continually reframe everything about me. So to ask me to tell you about myself will change from day to day. And how many "selves" of me are there? I am mainly a social construct trying to crack open. My mood reflects my inner self.
My conscious self, appearing on occasion, attempts to control the constant internal chatter box. I have lived in Napier for the past 25 years. My life and art are closely linked.
What is your main medium?
My main medium is installation art - sculptural and assemblage.
My parallel practice in collage, femmage (a technique of assembling and painting that uses found materials relating to women's lives and using traditional female skills such as embroidery and quilting) and drawing are also essential elements in the process of my art-making.
However, lately I have been more engaged, introspectively, with drawing and poetic word play.
How is your personality reflected in your work?
Much of my art reflects the poetics of memory and feminine themes - feminine roles and relationships. It combines an oxymoron of the whimsical and the psychological.
The work either holds an element of tension or can be light and playful. I don't care for making art for commercial sake.
I do it for me. It is one area in my life where I think it's OK to be self-centred but hopefully not ego orientated - a grand ideal. When exhibited, the work takes on new meaning as each viewer brings their own perception and interpretation. Life is in process, as is my life in art, and my art in life.
What has been your most touching or amazing moment you've experienced as an artist?
A most poignant moment as an artist was my encounter with artist Louise Bourgeois in a dream I had the night before my final master's exhibition opening.
She is my heroine of the art world (she was making art up until her death in 2010, at the age of 98). On remembering my dream the following morning, I was overwhelmed with joy.
What has been your darkest moment?
No one particular darkest moment but rather dark moments when I feel the impetus to create, and no time or no motivation to do so.
Or when I am too tired and too bogged down with things that need doing and I'm not keen on doing them.
How do you budget your time (in the studio and out)?
Budgeting time for art in my studio is challenging and haphazard. Life gets in the way, or is that just an excuse? I need to figure that one out still. Discipline sounds like the right word. I think if I have something to work towards with a deadline then that's always an incentive.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I get inspiration from a variety of sources. Sometimes it's an idea or a memory.
It could also be triggered by a found object. I can take a drawing and develop it, or a process and augment it.
The process over end product is important. I sometimes like to take multiples of an item, such as women's slips, and reconstruct them, or a set of black Bibles and stack them together.
What other artists do you admire?
Louise Bourgeois, Mona Hatoum, Kiki Smith, Annette Messager, Sarah Lucas, Carol Rama, Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Robert Gober, Joseph Beuys, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Eve Armstrong, Tiffany Singh.
What are your plans for the future?
Continue with fortnightly life drawing at the HCAG, as a discipline in drawing.
Produce a body of work for exhibition and submit proposals to target galleries.
Continue with adult tutoring at tertiary level. Work towards being employed in the visual arts sector. Look at further post-graduate study options to augment existing professional practice.