ARTIST BIO FOR KARYN FEARNSIDE
Karyn Fearnside is an Australian mixed media artist residing in Canberra
At the age of 28 Karyn was accepted into the Canberra School of Art, part of the Australian National University to study Textiles. Textiles is a wonderful discipline as it covers so many areas, painting, drawing, 3D as well as the traditional techniques of weaving, tapestry and printing. Karyn
made large scale cow carcasses out of tablecloths for her final work and exhibited them as an installation commenting on the fact that people don’t think about where the packaged meat from the supermarket comes from, let alone how it got there. She left with first class honours and an Emerging Artist Support Scheme award which resulted in her first solo exhibition, “Stunting” in 1998. She had her second solo exhibition in 2014, “SALSA” and her third, “weatheRED” in 2015.
“SALSA”
During 2012 we grew tomatillo’s (pronounced tohm-ah-TEE-oh) a small fruit encased in a papery husk, that is the main ingredient in salsa verde. Over the winter the few unpicked tomatillo’s decayed and in the spring my daughter found a very interesting skeletal form, intricate tomatillo shells only a few centimetres long. I immediately began photographing the delicate husk and this body of work explores the fragile structure through photographs, drawings, printing and computer manipulation. The viewer is able to appreciate the tiny lacy shape through the images.
“weatheRED”
It all began with the hair, the glorious red hair which my two daughters share with their aunts, great aunts and were she alive today, their maternal grandmother. My mum was also one of two read haired girls, and that sense of history repeating and a connection reaching back through time did not go unnoticed. Plus, at some point, my aunt gave me mum’s plait which she had cut off when she was 16, to enjoy life with short hair forever after. I wondered what I could possibly do with it. In 2012 I did a photo shoot with my daughters then aged 10 and 12, focusing on their hair. This produced some pleasing results, but I really needed a better camera. I got my first camera when I was around 10, living in Kathmandu, it was an old fashioned one with a fold out lense that had belonged to my dad. I have always enjoyed photography and have used it as an integral part of my artwork. With a new digital SLR I was able to work at home in a way that did not take up much space, I began experimenting with the photographs on the computer. Computers play a big part in Textiles, and whilst doing my degree in Textiles at the ANU I first explored computer generated artwork and computer manipulation. I combined the images with different backgrounds such as rusty metal, random marks on the walls of the local underpass and floral designs on favourite t-shirts. The images reminded me of stains you might see on mildewy wallpaper and the human trait of pareidolia, seeing what appears to the individual to be a face, figure, or form in wood grain, smoke, shadows, or any non-homogeneous area. The Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. The works feel ethereal and evocative of the veil between our world and the world of spirit. The bowls began as a physical way of connecting the generations and I worked on the maternal side, though quickly came to realise that the father is an important part of any family, and the forms became more personal. The hair bowls connect to family, they express feelings of nurturing, protection, humour, and even a sense of wildness. The carnelian beads belonged to my mother, and are a way of including her as I am yet to locate her plait!
