Kat Flyn
Karen
2021

Name: Karen
Brand: Kat Flyn
Price: 3125 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

assemblage sculpture: Handmade old wood throne, hand carved wood puppet in old dress and boat flag sash, real pearls, vintage Rolex watch, probably fake, vintage painted pictures girls' career game pieces, handmade wood controller, antique sterling silver hand mirror. Hanging wall object or stand alone. "'Karen' is a term that refers to an outspoken white Woman who acts in an entitled, self-centered, racist or sexist manner, who often directs her anger at minorities. Karens, being white, do possess an exalted position in our society, but they pay a price. In this work, despite her prejudices, I take a quasi-sympathetic view of the stress that comes with being Karen. Choices open to her are limiting relative to white men. Her power is more ceremonial than real. The “glass ceiling” & sexual harassment are still things she bumps up against constantly. These stresses explain some of her petty self-righteous and domineering behavior, and I can't help but wonder if the term Karen can apply to most white people, not just women, at one time or another. Ironically, the term is also used to shame outspoken white women into silence.'" KAT FLYN is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectibles which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990s. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego County and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire, she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles. Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work, and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art. The artist says of her practice... Strictly speaking, I am an assemblage artist, but in fact, I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectibles, artifacts, and wood carvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use, often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place? In my art, I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray.

Creator:

Kat Flyn (1946, American)

Creation Year:

2021

Dimensions:

Height: 27 in (68.58 cm)Width: 10 in (25.4 cm)Depth: 10 in (25.4 cm)

Medium:

Mixed Media

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century