Preventable Within

Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2011, Karla Black takes children’s interaction with the world through play as her creative muse. ‘That's what sculpture can do,’ she explains: ‘it can be a pure engulfment and absorption in the material world, when you’re not even aware of yourself, when you have no self-consciousness, and you’re not being watched … That is the best possible kind of escape – when you are fully connected to yourself. I think about art as a place to behave, as an escape, not just for me but for the people looking at it.’ Preventable Within is formed from sheets of sugarpaper in a soft pastel green, dusted lightly with orange chalk. Haphazardly glued together in a three-by-three square, the sheets are suspended from the ceiling by thread; the lower right panel is missing as if snatched away, leaving rips and creases in its wake. Toward the upper left, further strokes of blue, yellow and pink chalk create a gentle flurry of colour, echoing the prelingual articulation of physical play. The artist’s use of simple materials to lyrical effect is typical – she has also been known to employ such media as sellotape, cotton wool, toothpaste, eyeshadow and soap. The mundane and everyday are elevated through the pleasure of raw, tactile creativity, and something like the magical worldview of childhood shines through.