Kāryn Taylor

Kāryn Taylor is a contemporary artist. Born in 1969, she lives in Māpua, Nelson.

Kāryn manipulates materials, light, form and shadow to challenge our perception of the structures that ground our reality. Her practice is informed by geometric abstraction, which stems from her interest in quantum physics. Kāryn is interested in the idea that we are twisting reality on a moment-by-moment basis. Are we creating our world by consciousness alone, as quantum physics seems to suggest? If we know that everything is made up of energy and a lot of empty space, why or how are objects so convincingly solid?

To Kāryn, geometric abstraction is a language that has the ability to express complicated non-sensical ideas in a more logical way. She feels that geometry, along with colour, has a strong and clear energy structure, a kind of embedded coding that the viewer can pick up on at some level. Kāryn produces self-illuminating light boxes, shadow boxes and multi-dimensional drawings. The light boxes are intense in colour with their glowing lines of light defying logic. They are analogue, glowing without power. Their illumination is striking, convincing many that there must be some kind of hidden mechanism or light source. The shadow boxes are more subtle and ephemeral; they use shades of grey to elicit three dimensional geometric forms. The drawings are made up of painted lines, steel rods and animated projection, combining moving and static lines in an attempt to push the work beyond three dimensions.