As Luck Would Have It (2015)

Installed in the window gallery at Roadside Attractions (Toronto), As Luck Would Have It is a site-specific installation that references the fortune cookie, and the act of searching for encouragement within a predetermined space.

Fortune cookies are opened primarily for their contents. Seeking direction more than sustenance, those who open fortune cookies often discard the cookie, and keep the fortune – for luck. Removing both the cookie, and the fortune, Karuna’s installation is composed entirely of fortune cookie wrappers: the individual plastic packages that seal and protect predictions of our futures. Exploring the trust of the fortune seeker, and utilizing the existing graphic design of Wing’s fortune cookie packages, As Luck Would Have It draws an oversized red arrow in the Roadside Attractions window space, directing viewers toward their impending futures without saying a word.

trust / fall (2015)

In May 2015, Iris “Ike” Karuna completed a month-long residency at the Drake Lab (Toronto). Working exclusively with found images, discarded household objects, and straight pins, they built a new series of collage works over the course of the month.

Referencing the Atropos belladonna plant (a.k.a. “deadly nightshade”), the story of Sleeping Beauty, and the agony of searching for an oasis and finding a mirage, Karuna’s trust / fall explores the idea that trust is dangerous, and that beauty is perhaps untrustworthy.

Throughout the residency, the phases and compositional elements of Karuna’s collages were on view, simultaneous to the nascent works. Working with straight pins as an adhesive, each collage element might be arranged or rearranged several times, and the final collages retain a sense of delicacy, fragility, and changeability. As the collages developed, viewers took note of the gradual changes in composition, as well as the images collected and/or left unused.

Showing works that are incomplete, imperfect, or that may be undone later is key to Karuna’s practice. The acknowledgement of frailty is pervasive in her work, which often explores the human condition, our difficulty with communication, and our fears of being misunderstood, unrecognized, or left behind.

All U Bratz (2013)

All U Bratz was completed during the final thesis year of my BFA Printmaking at OCAD University. My thesis work developed as a multi-disciplinary look at the way we narrate the human condition. In my book Aries Pisces Cusp Baby, I demonstrate my belief that it is possible to narrate the human condition -to describe what it is like to be a human being- without making judgments about whether or not our actions are moral or whether they ultimately matter.

Highlighting the human condition (and the ways in which people employ magic, ritual, science, and pseudoscience to reconcile their feelings of uncertainty) images of the body, connection, (mis)communication, and human frailty, as well as references to cultural content (children’s games, movie end-titles, tattoos, or neon signs) work together to connote intimacy, desire, learning through play, fear, and ultimately, hope.