GI2012: Karla Black
Directors Programme
Date: 20 April – 24 June 2012
Space: Gallery 1

In her largest show to date, Karla Black transforms GOMA’s distinctive main exhibition space with new sculptures made in and for the gallery. Supported by Glasgow International.

Almost 20 tonnes of wood shavings have been laid down in the ground floor gallery of GoMA. Alternating layers of pine, spruce, teak, maple, yew and oak are laid down like so much geological sediment. From the top it’s like a vast desert. From the sides, alternately smoothly shuttered, or eroded and worked at by the artist’s hands, it’s a museum model of the earth’s layers. Above, strung like clouds or a particularly homespun spider web, is a vast network of cellophane garlands, each lightly gilded with Black’s signature make-up materials, smears of fake tan, brushes of bronzing powders, globs of nail varnish all in bronzes and golds. They extend across the whole room, dipping down to meet the visitor, with visible handprints and marks. But the contrast between earthy and robust and airy and immaterial is not all as it seems: see-through cellophane is actually a wood-derived product.

Artists: Karla Black

Links:
• Moira Jeffrey, ‘Glasgow International Plays to the Gallery’, The Scotsman, April 22, 2012
• The Guardian
• The List
• Art Forum
• The Guardian – In Pictures
• The Arts Desk
• GI2012 Guide on issuu
• GI2012 – British Council film 
• Artlyst
• Art Critical
• BBC News
• The Herald