Installation
Loose on the Streets
by Karen Browett
Sat. 18 November
The Model
This film revolves around themes of re-integration after the recent extended periods of isolation during covid. The work looks at anxieties, desires, boundaries and social strangeness. Karen is fascinated by the characteristics and mechanisms used by animals to signal warning and attraction, wondering how life would be if humans could adopt some of these aposematic behaviours, chameleonic changes and puffed up displays. Loose on the Streets playfully suggests a world where this behaviour exists.
The film was shot on Super8 and hand processed. Through Karen’s multimedia approach to her work, by creating off the wall characters, making wild costumes, homemade soundtracks, set design, Letraset title cards and more, this short film offers the viewer an invitation into a fully tactile new world.
Karen’s inspiration comes from the pure excitement of the process itself and the physical actb of making, which is always accompanied by a heavy dose of noise, crackle, chaos, punk spiritand DIY.
Karen Browett is a multi-media artist with a grounding in printmaking. She began in screen print fifteen years ago in order to make merchandise for her bands, leading her to work as a print studio technician, commercial printer and tutor alongside her visual arts practice. In 2016 she opened her own independent screen print studio. Karen’s work is guided by a love of analogue processes and DIY ethos.
Karen graduated from the MA ARC program through IADT (First Class Hons) in January of
2021 and was awarded the Bursary award by The Arts Council in late 2022. She has been chosen as the ‘Emerging Artist Residency’ recipient at The Darkroom, D7 from April to September 2022 and as a Future Labs resident artist at DAS Belfast from September 2022 to March 2023. Karen is currently enrolled in Art and Ecology at NCAD.
The film will screen in The Model, Sat 18 November, 7-10pm