Artist Statement
Karley Klopfenstein is an artist living and working in South Florida. She is interested in the way that violence, horror and war nudge their way subtly into the comfort of our daily routine. Klopfenstein’s current body of work focuses on specific American military weaponry, rendered domestic with traditional craft techniques. The juxtaposition of the imagery used as a graphic element, as in the rugs, or recreated to scale, as in the gun series, and the technique comment on the persistent presence of violence in our everyday lives.
Mass media representation and exploitation of fear and military culture are obvious influences in her work. She is interested in the beautiful forms that these violent objects take. She writes, “Fat Man is a very specific shape and this amazingly lovely round form, so pregnant with cultural meaning.” She attempts to make us aware of the potential meaning these ordinary objects can hold. Klopfenstein grew up making things: knitting, crocheting, making hooked rugs, macramé, weaving, etc. This slow repetitive process invites contemplation and evokes a bygone era of domestic life. Craft techniques appeared in contemporary art as a political, feminist statement in the 1960’s with pioneering artists like Jackie Windsor who took the traditional “woman’s” art and empowered it in defiance of the dominant minimalist materials and forms of that era. Klopfenstein acknowledges this, juxtaposing stereotypically male and female imagery together. Soft and hard, deadly and delicate.
There is also a dark humor in the work; puns and language play a large role.