Simone Karl

Lives and works in Hamburg, Germany

Artist statement

I work withttps://foundwork.art/artists/edit/simonekarl1/profileh installation, sculpture, objects and collage, exploring the resilience of vulnerable bodies. In confrontational, spatial works made from materials such as steel and leather, I am interested in the ability of bodies to simultaneously endure seemingly contradictory states – such as defence and attraction, or protection and danger – and to merge them into a single entity. Defence and attraction, protection and danger do not appear as binary opposites, but as intertwined forces whose coexistence gives rise to condensed, sometimes inviting and at the same time dangerous forms. Defence and attraction, protection and danger do not appear as binary poles, but as intertwined forces whose coexistence gives rise to condensed, sometimes inviting and at the same time dangerous forms. Floral and animal motifs such as claws, armour, fur, tongues, teeth, spines, perfume and poison act as carriers of strategies such as protection, aggression, camouflage and seduction in my works. They enable me to reveal the archaic resistance in humanity and to negotiate physicalities that elude clear attribution. Another central focus for me is the exploration of existential emotional states such as control and loss of control, injury and resistance, erotic desire, fear and anger. I understand them as physical, material forces that I manifest in material, form, surface and weight. In many of my works, this ambivalence is extended to the...

Artwork