Elke Karnik

“I play and experiment with different media such as drawing, video, photography, object/sculpture, often in combination and in site-specific installations.

My themes are vulnerability, loneliness and coping, dignity and identity. The starting point is my own experiences and memories, a sense of the absurd, family stories that I collect, but also societal issues, such as our dealings with refugees, the oppression of our fellow humans and nature.

I work with different materials. Common is my interest in the banal, the local, the poor and the broken: an umbrella corpse, my teddy bear, family stories, paper, the neighbour’s cat, …

The materials are transformed, often animated, and appear in new constellations. The intention is that “they get a new life”.