Where elaborate architecture and exotic animals meet
Artist Spotlight: Karen Knorr
Karen Knorr’s work evokes ideas of fantasy, wealth and excess with richly coloured images of elaborate architecture and exotic animals.
Knorr’s collages parade as photographs; appearing at first to depict a species and a place, but ultimately force the viewer to question the validity of what they are seeing.
Digital collages juxtapose the natural beauty of some of the planet’s most remarkable animals with human ingenuity; the grand architecture and intricate interiors of palaces and temples built in centuries past.
Concerned with class and privilege, gender, heritage, and animal studies, Knorr’s practice developed from black and white documentary photography with which she explored the lives of England’s upper classes and patriarchal systems.
However, it is the representation of animals within a decidedly human context that has remained a consistent feature of Knorr’s work for the better part of her career. To conceptualise the significance of Knorr’s work, it can be understood as two components coming together to form a narrative; the setting, and the subject.
To speak to the setting of the works, the artist’s practice involves extensive travel to heritage sites across the world. Knorr has photographed buildings in India, China, Japan, Italy, France, Britain; historically rich countries with a wealth of heritage sites, each engaged in the architectural and artistic culture of its surroundings.
Knorr photographs these sites and then uses digital collage to place her animal subjects within their elborate interiors. Spaces once reserved for the aristocracy and religious leaders thus become the realm of the animal kingdom. According to the artist, animals feature in her work as “cyphers of alterity that interrogate human anthropocentric currently being challenged by groups such as Extinction Rebellion.”
The resulting collages show peacocks, tigers, elephants, flamingos, monkeys, deer and other exotic animals set in elaborately decorated temples and palaces.
Inspired, in part by folklore the works are an exploration of cultural heritage and its ideological underpinnings, questioning the relationship between post-colonialism and contemporary aesthetics.
Knorr’s interest in folklore transcends cultures; referencing myths and origin stories from India, Japan and the Middle East that have circulated and mixed with Western fables. This fascination with the meeting of stories is indicative of Knorr’s interest in the boundaries where East meets West.
Knorr’s ability to seamlessly incorporate animals into the splendid rooms of some of the world’s most ostentatious buildings renders her work unique in the broader context of contemporary photography.
Follow Karen’s work on Instagram and check out her website.
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