Karen Moss: Which Way Out?
No Elbow Room, 2021, 46x39”, Marine plywood, gesso, and acrylic paint.
This body of work is an expression of some of the challenges faced while living under the restrictions of Covid. I wanted to express the notion of limitations and boundaries in my artistic process as well as in the visual format and the process I chose.
The series called “Breaking Out” employs a cast of characters inspired by my stuffed animal and toy collection. The danger of contagion triggered an open-ended time of people being confined, which led to the format of this series. I experimented with color, texture and various permutations of these shapes crowded and layered into a rectangular format. The rigid boundaries were broken by the characters’ desire to escape a claustrophobic environment.
This group of small collages, as well as another set of individually titled large framed works, all derive from a collection of toys that I found in a thrift shop five years ago. They have continued to provide me with metaphors and source material which keeps evolving. In my last exhibition called “Abandoned” the toys were depicted without color but in detail, whereas now both groups are abstracted to become flat colorful shapes and quirky silhouettes. In the framed work, pop culture figures such as Lisa Simpson, Woody, the cowboy from Toy Story, and Micky Mouse, appear trapped within a dense fragmented world of layered cut paper.
Three wood wall reliefs evolved directly from the black and white drawings. One of them titled “No Elbow Room” echoes the theme of living in close quarters with no room to move. Another one called “Flight” depicts those who escaped from densely packed areas in search of a safe place to hide from contagion. The third work, a vertical piece called “Support System,” is more optimistic, relieving the tensions and anxiety expressed in the other works by showing the interdependent relationships that help people get through challenging times.
Learn more about Karen Moss and her studio practice in the video here.
