Karla Dickens
About the work
In her series of table top sculptures made for CrownLand Dickens reclaims ‘Australiana’ – the laughing kookaburra, the souvenir teaspoon sporting miniaturised fauna and the carved emu egg – to create dioramas of death and dispossession. ‘Deadly’ humour is never far away for Dickens who reminds us that ‘she is not happy Jan’. Dickens’ belongs to a lineage of Feminist and First Nations political artists and through her assemblages she draws upon the carnivalesque, both literal as a series of miniatures theatres or carnivals, and philosophical, best understood by literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin who described the carnivalesque as a subversive power that mobilises the folkloric to subvert dominant power. Words by Lisa Slade from essay, A New Royal Domain.
Images
About the artist
Born on Eora Country (Sydney, Australia)
1967
Karla Dickens is a multidisciplinary artist of Wiradjuri, Irish and German descent. Since graduating from the National Art School (Sydney) in 2000 – and having since made Bundjalung country in Northern New South Wales her home. Her artwork unfurls the cross-cultural experiences which have shaped her identity. A self-described visual storyteller, Dickens believes artists’ propensity to respond to the world around them brings them into contact with the political and social issues of the day and allows them to break the silence, to carve out spaces for truth telling and confront issues others won’t, like systemic sexual violence against indigenous women. She fights for radical change by weaving historically symbolic yet also personal accounts of transgenerational trauma, sounding a call to arms to the younger generation to learn how to protect themselves from the toxicity of the lingering effects of colonialism and entrenched
racism.
Dickens uses recycled everyday items to explore notions of persistence amidst inherent violence and misunderstanding. Made with uncommon rawness and daring, her meticulously fabricated works emanate a rare truthfulness and honesty. Edgy and hard to confine, Karla often cannibalises existing works to create new ones. She presents a wide ranging and unique interpretation of the real world; where past and present collide in a multi-dimensional kaleidoscope of her own making.
She has held annual solo exhibitions and participated in countless group exhibitions and community based projects between 1994 and now, celebrated at Campbelltown Arts Centre 2022 – 23 with 30 year survey exhibition 2023 Karla has work in Shadow Spirit for Rising Festival that will tour for National and International for the next 2 years. 2020 has seen Dickens work at AGSA Adelaide Biennial – Monster Theatres, Sydney Biennale NIRIN showing at the AGNSW. 2017 at Carriageworks as apart of The National, Defying Empire Triennial shown at The National Gallery in Canberra, along with the inclusion in Grounded at The National Art School in Sydney. In 2016, paintings of Karla’s were projected onto the sails of Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE. Australian Indigenous Art Awards 2015 at Art Gallery of Western Australia, TarraWarra Biennial 2014: Whisper in My Mask at TarraWarra Museum of Art and Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu at Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA).
Represented by
STATION Gallery
- CrownLand
- Sculpture