After Death Options, the title for the third, and final, part of Fat Lands, came to Karalla before she had conceptualized the project. “Normally I have the project first and then the title comes to me,” she explained, “I knew there’s got to be a conclusion, and some kind of positive coming out of the negative.”To find this sense of resolution she focused on the dead flowers strewn throughout her apartment. Flowers, whether dead or alive, are the testament to life lived. They are given and received for many reasons, and serve to commemorate moments past, be they happy or sad. Starting with fat and ending with dead flowers, Cynthia Karalla’s work is deep, dark and full of humor. The feelings her work evokes are similar to the sentimentally disturbing works of other great women artists, such as Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, and Carolee Schneemann. And where will she go next to continue to disrupt the senses of her viewers? “Immortalizing those little underdogs in life,” she said. I’m sure with an ironic smile.
Available in the Instant Gratification Digital Prints