Images from the past in a new context.

Interview with Karen Chenkovich by Kadence Englehardt.

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For Karen Chenkovich, a Seattle based artist, the properties of the materials she works with are the most fascinating subject matter. ‘Reallocating’ the images and text from many older volumes, this artist has a sincere love for the past, and sheds light on the forgotten images of its dusty old volumes through a spontaneous, yet structured, process.

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Kadence Englehardt: What’s your background?

Karen Chenkovich: Before I went to college, I was doing a lot of collage work and working with paper. And then when I got to college, I had to pick a focus, and I chose Fiber Arts, an extremely small program at UW, which almost got cut. But I liked that it was a sort of mixed media choice. It’s based on traditional textile mediums, like weaving and screen-printing, but what made it different was that it was treated like a conceptual process just like any other medium. Part of my thesis work was a series of woven pieces, called ‘Woven Gestures’  - I approached the loom with the same mentality and intuition that I would pencil & paper.  My loom was warped with black and off-white thread, and with that I was able to “draw;” I called it ‘spontaneous mark-making.’ There was no pre-conceived idea of what these drawings were going to be. No forethought. It was just an immediate response to the materials and a continuous reaction to the markings made one thread at a time.  It was such a common notion with graphite, that idea of ‘letting go’ but I wanted to try that on a loom, where you can spend hours just setting up to work. It was a contradiction – how can you be spontaneous when the process is so slow? After awhile, I got tired of the loom’s rigid grid system, so I started playing around with silk organza, stitching, and dipping things in wax – fabric actually.

KE: How did your loom work evolve into collage?

KC: In the beginning, I played around with a lot of wood, making paper, cut paper strips, and wire – found materials and putting them into mixed media works. This was the beginning of when I started to use the beeswax, dipping silk organza and then patching it together. I love finding the beauty in every little part – a single stitch can be so visually interesting to me. I’m heading more in the narrative direction now, so there is getting to be more of a conceptualization to it, but I’ll always love that spontaneity. I started working on paper, got rid of the cloth. The progression was the woven fabric of the loom, then I went to paper – stitching on paper, found paper, found markings on paper, applying my own marks to the paper; then I got tired of the pliable plane and the movement, so I moved to panels for a hard surface to work on. I think it was a morph between being completely spontaneous and the story-telling of the narrative – a clean slate without providing any properties of its own. I also still enjoy doing geometric abstractions – I still have a love for very formal shapes and grid systems. I like having the visual language be just that sometimes: a discernable language, one that people have to decide what it means for themselves.

KE: So, you’ve always known that you were interested in art and wanted to be an artist?

KC: I did. I did, for the most part. When I was younger, I was always obsessed with materials. My family is a woodworking and building family, and I think that concept of building; looking at something and seeing how the parts came to a whole. I think that concept was driven into me. And, we didn’t have any real restrictions – I mean, my mom got a little nervous when we started using the power tools, but my dad was there to supervise! We had free reign, so I think that sparked kind of an interest in creative pursuits.  My mom also taught me to sew when I was young, again…..watching ‘parts’ built into a ‘whole’.

KE: Could you say your style of collage is based on that love of spontaneity?

KC: I’m definitely rooted in spontaneity, making unplanned marks, and a physical response to the materials. A little like a lack of process is my process.

KE: Are there any particularly difficult issues you face working in collage, such as copyright laws, inability to find a particular image, etc?

KC: The tricky thing about using found papers or markings and applying my own hand to them, is that it’s reallocating that image from its original context and applying it to my own context. I would never use something very blatant, but I suppose all is relative; I don’t have an interest in the actual image I use, but rather, the whole composition. If I need an ear, I wonder, where can I find an ear? But it’s just about that image working in my context rather than the ear itself.  I have little interest in knowing how to draw one myself, rather I want to work with them.  Sometimes I use words, like out of the dictionary, so I will sometimes point out very concrete things, even in my abstract work…it’s a bit of a contradiction. When I take these images, I don’t think of it as discrediting or defacing the original work. I don’t think of it as a devaluing of the work. There are the purists out there who see collage as a sort of graffiti of sorts.

KE: Does having a place in the Bemis building affect your work?

KC: We haven’t lived here long, but I always used to have a house, where my work was in a separate space or studio. Living here in this big open space, where my work is always with me, it’ll be interesting to see how it affects work. I do feel more attached than when I used to have strict studio times. I do love the character of the building though – there are all sorts of marks and circles in the floors that I find and have an interest in. The business of art and life is hard to balance.

KE: Is there is any particular subject matter that interests you?

KC: I use a lot of found materials – a lot of anatomy. Definitely an interest in the body. I have this series of books from 1903, which are anatomy books that are so intricate. You just don’t find that kind of stuff anymore – the details are incredible in some of the older etchings.

KE: A lot of your work has images of anatomy. Is there a particular reason for that inspiration?

KC: Getting out of college I had some medical issues, which really made me think about how oblivious I was to my body and how it worked, and how I took it for granted. Being faced with that, was a big realization and it peaked my interest in medical images. It turned into this sort of narrative-story-type.

KE: Do some people ever have adverse reactions to your images?

KC: I think a lot of people are afraid of what’s under their skin, so they don’t like images of medical stuff. It’s interesting when people can be repulsed by it, because we all have those parts, I’m just highlighting them.

KE: How does text play a role in your work?

KC: Usually if I choose to use quotes, it’s someone else’s words, but they are the ones that people wouldn’t expect to have been quoted.  I use a lot of text sometimes because I like the look of letters, simple as their own forms. One of my works has a passage from a history book, and it seems very unintentional, which makes it more interesting.

KE: Do you know where to place the texts or images?

KC: Definitely. I don’t really sketch it out, and if I do, it’s really loose. All of that placement happens when I’m working on the piece – in the moment.

KE: What made you want to incorporate the beeswax into your collages?

KC: I think it was the color – it definitely works with the palette I usually use, and that matte finish. I was really attracted to its properties on its own – I don’t really think it was a conceptual reason, more just responding to and using different materials. I still do some collage without it, but I feel like it makes it all come together. When you have layers and layers of tissue-like paper, it really makes it all translucent and cohesive, smashing it all together. It adds an interesting element of compounding imagery. I love the unplanned part, too. I can’t control it, so I’ve even had to throw away some work if it didn’t work.

KE: There seems to be a common color palette in much of your work – sort of an organic feel?

KC: I think there are a lot of colors that can be found in neutrals – black, browns, whites, grays. I find these tones extremely beautiful. That’s why I gravitate toward beeswax, old papers and books, and other elements, because it really completes that palette.

KE: Would you say that a lot of your work possesses a respect for the past or that it is a common thread?

KC: Right now, I’m taking these drop cloths that were my Mom’s uncle’s – he was a painter back in Montana and I’m cutting them up. I love them! They have all these marks, these spontaneous marks, they weren’t thought of at all.  I’m going to come in with some off-white thread, just adding highlights to what exists.  I want to show what I find beautiful in the marks of the past with the marks of now. Giving the past a new context.

KE: How do you incorporate elements of spontaneity and rigidity to your collage work?

KC: Cutting out the images can take a lot of time. The smaller works are more like a visual gesture – they’re so immediate. It’s so easy to take it from my head to the little 5-by-5 panels. The collage part was minimal, but with others it takes MONTHS to cut out the flowers or the bones. They are refreshing, real, and very raw. Sometimes when there’s too much conceptual thought going through it, I get a little bogged down. I think I always like having a little structure, in order to ground me so I can work. The grid system is probably something I’ll never deviate completely from – spontaneity within structure. The square panel provides that to me.

KE: How would you describe your vision for viewers?

KC: I think any material or image or person brings with it its own sort of baggage. Especially recognizable images, when you get into more concrete images, the viewer knows those. This is when the viewer asks a lot more questions – in particular, why is it here? Or how is it connected? I want someone to come to a piece of art, and not be intimidated by it, but embrace their own answers.

Karen Chenkovich lives and works in the Bemis Building. For more information on her work, please email her at kchenkovich@gmail.com

CREDITED

Photography by Jennifer Morgan