Artist's Statement
Karen has recently won several prizes for her most recent collection of work including the Helen A. Rose Bequest Award for distinguished final year work at Edinburgh College of Art, and the Duncraig Educational Trust Award.
Recent Exhibitions include; 'New Designers', London, 'Annual International Graduate Show' in Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, and 'New Graduates', Roger Billcliffe Gallery.
This collection of work is an exploration of the meaning of reality in an age of media saturation. A product of the Facebook generation, I am fascinated by the loss of truth in a society characterised by its disturbingly voyeuristic documentation of the death of reality television star Jade Goody. Producing jewellery and objects enables me to move freely between dimensions and media. My interdisciplinary attitude towards design is influenced by both the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivist movements of the early 20th Century, who compared the artist to an engineer, arranging materials scientifically and objectively, aiming to produce artworks as rationally as any other manufactured object. In my own work, I apply the same principles, and hope to achieve an aesthetic which mirrors the cluttered bombardment of imagery we are exposed to on a daily basis. Jewellery fascinates me as it interacts with the viewer in a way fine art is often unable to, its primary function to adorn. The act of wearing jewellery instantly removes it from the non-space of a conventional gallery, forcing it to integrate with the reality it was inspired by- connecting art to life.