Midnight in a Perfect world : Kara Joslyn
A first glance at Kara Joslyn’s first solo exhibition in Scandinavia frames the eyes on iconographies that evoke a tragic comedy, an opera buffa, or a dramatic Shakespearian orientation. A pensive, possibly fallen knight literally marked by the blues, a weeping Thalia Melpomene mask, and a defunct scenic set décor after the bow, with windows caving in. A theatrical visual realm of construction and artifice, you could say, anchors the frames. Perhaps something is just rotten in the state of the neighbouring Denmark.
Considering the more ruinous state of global affairs and Machiavellian world leaders trumping down morality in the wake of hyperbolic delusion, the exhibition title fails to hold reality at bay. It is, rather, given a wryly ironic ring. A daring American journalist recently observed that the theatricality of the phenomenon and spectacle of pro wrestling has trained certain viewers to “confuse” reality with performance. This “confusion” is now tragically spilling into how some also perceive the grand stage of politics, where good and evil perform for real. Never has the quotidian been so surreal, or stranger than fiction, as it is now.
On that note, construction and optics appear as one of the key characteristics of Kara Joslyn’s painterly expression. In certain works, the notion of two-dimensional paper cutout pieces folding into three-dimensional figures easily springs to mind. The painterly style has related contemporary peers, but what’s notable is the visual mood she casts it in, unlike others.
A cotton thistle in the exhibition might initially surprise as a solitary subject for observation, until its symbolic and conceptual potential, aligning with the Gothic, becomes more evident. The thought of an overgrown cluster of thistles, serving drama, appears a potent way to orchestrate an eerie Gothic landscape or to amplify brooding architecture. The thistle, commonly deemed invasive and undesirable, bears visual traces of conventional and natural beauty, while also being shaped by a more menacing disposition. Inviting, yet wearing tenderness and defiance both on its face, the cotton thistle persists in threatened environments, perhaps becoming a disguised bearer of hope. Altogether, familiar theatrical devices and symbolic props are offered to direct and complete a narrative already pointedly stirred by the very title of Kara Joslyn’s exhibition.
Text: Ashik Zaman
Kara Joslyn (b.1983, San Diego, US) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco (2008), completed post-baccalaureate studies in Painting at the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York (2011) and earned her MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California (2016). Recent solo exhibitions include Big Mouth Strikes Again (2023), M+B, Los Angeles; Please Throw Me Back in the Ocean (2023), Perrotin, Seoul; This is Hardcore (2022), Perrotin, New York; Mirror Window Door (2021) and has participated in group exhibitions across the US, Europe and Asia. In December 2025, her work will be presented by Perrotin at Art Basel Miami Beach.
