KAREN DEAR

Artist Statement

Think of your bedroom, your grandmothers sitting room, your favourite holiday haunt, your primary school classroom. They all have those certain smells, the sounds that create the memories; the touch of a duvet cover, embroidered armchair, sun on your face, or pencil shavings. They all have that familiar feeling, something that can’t be described or recreated; a feeling that is personal and unique to you, preserved in your own memories.

A sense of place cannot be defined, but by looking at theatre and novels I have explored the transportation that the viewer feels when reading or watching. We are taken to other places and create emotional attachments to these fictional places. By studying these feelings created through fiction, you can better understand what it is about real-life spaces that can recreate these emotional attachments. I’m investigating my own memories and how these can translate for other people through the sense of longing and a sense of place. This dealt with through various strands, with atmospheric etchings, creating theatre sets with found furniture and objects, and installations which each reflect on different aspects of memory of places/spaces. Creating work that brings a sense of memory and loss into a more physical form, working with archival documents such as appropriated photographs and objects. My intention, is to make people stop and consider what it is about a space that makes it so memorable, what creates these feelings. Through carefully considered use of materials, (ones that already have connections with these topics of questioning) I can bring more connections. Wax for example; giving the idea of time passing (candles wearing down to the wick), preservation and a nostalgic ambiance. I also use furniture such as chairs and desks, book cases and wash stands. These all have a human element to them, being used and filled with human life, yet they give a very different atmosphere when they are left empty in an installation, or lit like a stage set in anticipation. By introducing elements such as wax into these recognisable domestic scenes, it creates subversion of the familiarity you may feel. These acts and the physical presence of the remains evokes the premise of memories for the audience to interact with; the persistence of memory through physical acts and objects. This tense juxtaposition between these themes, is being pushed and twisted in an ongoing investigation into the material manifestation of memories.

We are in an age of capturing and keeping as much as we can through technology, however the digital is yet another ephemeral thing that isn’t tangible; through my artistic investigation I strive to create physical objects and environments that evoke these same emotional response as a photograph or home-video would. I create physical things that emerge from the written word, rather than just a digital imprint. Even in a digital world the object and written word is still very important, we keep certain trinkets and diaries to help us remember events, and the spaces these took place in. By including text and objects, a physicality is implied, a reach-out and touch-ability is encountered. We are in a world that is very visual, sometimes forgetting the other senses. With physical objects and images, it is easier to convey a feeling, an emotional attachment rather than just with text, it is taking this further if they can be objects with which the audience can interact. I am continuing the investigation of memories and the theory of senses that flourished in the 20th century and through into present day by means of an investigation into what holds a human’s attachments to places within their memories.

Biography/ Artist CV

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Education

2014 - UCA Canterbury Foundation Degree Merit

2014 to 2017 - Kingston University BA Fine Art and Art History First

 2021 ongoing - Greenwich University MLA Masters of Landscape Architecture

Exhibitions

2019 March

Stanley Picker Gallery

out of hours III

2017 June

Kingston University

Degree Show

2017 May

Safehouse 1

Remnants

2017 February

Kingston University

Nice Work

Art Gym

ARTefacts.  

2016 May 

Kingston University                        

Stubborn Comfort

2016 March    

Mick’s Garage/ Crate Brewery     

A Space Outside Your Mind     

2016 January  

Kingston University                        

Bee Day

2016 November

Art Gym

Beach Happening

2015 May        

Kingston University                        

Bin Bag

2015 March

Bushy Park

Vibrant Shadows