Karla Healy
This Wonderful World of Purchase Power
My current practice reflects upon the process of human extinction within a neoliberal landscape; fictioning a world of dystopian surrealism and generating future mythologies. As an aphantasic artist (meaning I have no ability to visualise in my mind) I digitally generate images from drawings and photographs, I then reclaim them by painting or printing them, interpreting and retelling their stories through the lens of my own human experiences and emotions.
Fuelled by my own sense of optimistic nihilism, my work challenges the notion of human supremacy by asking us to consider the consequences of our actions, and whether the absence of humanity could be considered a positive development for global health.
With a focus on facing the reality of human extinction, my undergrad paintings depict a world devoid of human presence. One rich with the slowly decomposing remnants of our material culture and infrastructures, as nature reclaims our spaces. In using dark colours and surreal imagery, I seek to reflect on the repercussions of our current behaviours and the potential futures that remain in the wake of our passing.
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About the Artist:
Karla is an award losing artist with a 99% rejection rate in open calls. She is an eternal student currently undertaking her masters at GSA with the aim of continuing into further research. The goal is never to leave university.
Karla has an interest in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, in particular ensuring a level playing field for disabled artists and older emerging artists within art education and beyond. In response to this, in 2022 Karla set up and co-organised Old Contemporaries, an exhibition for final year students and newly emerging artists over the age of 30 who attended GSA and DJCAD. Old Contemporaries hopes to create a network of emerging artists who started their art careers later in life. In 2023 this opportunity was opened up to all graduates over 30 from Scottish art schools and the exhibtion took place in September in Dundee, in association with DJCAD and Generator Projects. OC is taking a break for 2024 and will return in 2025.
Karla is actually quite a cheery person despite her fascination with the apocalypse. She is also a self-confessed woeful photographer.
