Karina Sharif welcomes me to WORTHLESSSTUDIOS to view her latest piece with an effortless air of joy about her. Her work uplifts Black femmes through art that she says is, “about maintaining your voice, speaking, talking about who you are”. Paper, her primary chosen medium, is a tool that allows her to take up space instead of compromising, as Black women are too often expected to do.
As part of her residency at the Brooklyn-based studio, Karina recently debuted her largest piece yet, “A Warm Embrace, Obsidian Incarnate, 2023”. This lamp-like sculpture, on display until 17 December, was inspired by the artist’s mother and Great Aunt, who have both passed away. Standing in between the curved body of the sculpture sparks warmth and comfort, the same feeling of being entangled in a hug, with your head resting on someone else’s chest.
“I wanted to remember what it’s like to feel tiny, when you hug a loved one, and you just feel so caught up in their hug,” she explains. Looking towards her sculpture, Karina recalls being scared at night as a kid and asking to lay in her mother’s bed. “I would cuddle up behind her and feel like this little pea behind the pod, or like a cub with the mama bear.”
The sculpture’s large body, which is covered in papercrete, a combination of paper and concrete, is juxtaposed with narrow legs. The artist used welding techniques to create a strong frame and wiring to light the lamp. While these are newer skills for Karina, the piece is adorned with circular paper shapes that draw your eye in different directions, a signature of her practice.
“I just love the idea of these dainty feet on this large, beautiful, rounded piece,” she says, noting that some viewers have compared it to a mammal. The large shapes feel powerful but also gentle and loving, she explains.
While there’s often a child-like playfulness to Karina’s art at large, her pieces also tend to have dual meanings. “I think there’s a lot of joy in my work,” she says. “And there’s also this sadness as well, if you look deeper into some of the meanings.” This is a nod to the Black femme experience, she adds. “There’s so much beauty and joy and there’s also the hardship.”
Karina, who grew up in Boston, has known what it looks like to go after your goals and defy norms from a young age. Her mother Diane Lewis, who passed away in 2007, was a pivotal journalist at The Boston Globe during a time when there was little diversity in the industry. “Everyone [asked] her, ‘what are you doing?’ Becoming a journalist in her time, it just felt like, oh, that’s going to be kind of impossible as a Black woman,” Karina recalls.
When she thinks about her mom, Karina pictures her working hard; the only Black woman in a room of white males. Diane worked in the business section of the newspaper, telling the stories of non-unionised workers who were underrepresented and needed someone to speak for them. Karina watched her uncover major stories, receive awards and praise, and make a difference in people’s lives with her words. But she also watched her go to work and face discrimination and misogynoir, such as being asked to do tasks multiple times due to a lack of trust. From a young age, Karina understood that even achievement comes with hardship for Black women.
In addition to being a strong role model, Diane also nurtured Karina’s artistic abilities. “When I was a baby, she would put paper all over the ground and let me draw on it,” the artist says. “So I think my relationship with paper, whether I realised it or not, has also been close to heart for a long time.”
After graduating with a BFA in fashion from Pratt Institute, Karina worked in various corporate roles for about six years, but it never felt quite right to her. “One day I just decided to quit and I fell into styling sort of by accident,” she says. But on realising how wasteful the industry could be, Karina realised she wasn’t interested in working in wardrobe any longer either. She recalls going to showrooms where garments would be readily discarded, with last season’s items quickly forgotten about.
She started adorning models with paper instead of clothing when a peer asked her to participate in a photoshoot. “I said that lately I haven’t been as intrigued, but sure, I’ll do it. However, I need to be able to choose the medium and use something different than clothing,” Karina explains. “It was that moment when I realised, I feel something here,” she says, reflecting on the shoot. “And after a long time of not really relating or feeling as creatively inclined, it was really nice to have that feeling again and to trust it.”
Working with paper reminds Karina of working with her hair — both requiring patience and specific knowledge. The signature circle and coil shapes seen in her art are reminiscent of the tiny curls in the back of Black women’s hair, known as ‘the kitchen’. “Once I discovered that working with paper was allowing me to dig a little deeper in myself — specifically within my heritage — and that it was naturally having this effect on other femmes, I thought, ‘Okay, this is something that I can continue to speak through’.”
In addition to that first shoot, Karina’s recent independent exhibition Adorned Metallica at FiveMyles Gallery was pivotal in her practice. “It was a really beautiful take on just looking at ore and where it comes from, the natural resource, but also the power behind it,” she explains. “Because my work represents Black femmes, I really wanted to look at bringing those materials back to adorn individuals who, in my mind, reflect the brilliance of them and the natural place of where they belong.”
When adorning models for a show, Karina seeks to build a sense of community and collaboration to encourage them to continue to take up space and stand together. Given 15-20 minutes to pose in front of a public crowd, models also wore Khiry Jewelry, a designer whose work represents Afrofuturism and looking back at iconic moments throughout history.
Karina, who refers to herself as a spiritual person, also cast her late mother as a model in Adorned Metallica. “I feel like there’s moments when my mom communicates in different ways with me or her spirit shows up,” she explains. For a while, she felt like her mom had been asking to model for her. For the performance, Karina placed her mom’s urn on a metallic chair, adorned with paper. To the viewer, the paper appears to be cascading out from behind her ashes. But for her mother, the fluid material “wrapped around her” like an embrace.
While Karina’s mother has a strong presence in her current practice, the artist notes that she would likely be surprised by the path she’s taken, since she passed when she was just 21. “There’s so much she didn’t know about me and that I didn’t know about me yet,” she explains. However, Karina also believes her mother knew what she would ultimately be capable of artistically. “I think she’d be very proud. I think she would feel seen in the work.”
Karina’s mother may have been her role model, but through making artwork that uplifts Black femmes, she has in turn become a role model for others. “I try to stand as a pillar when other folks are afraid to speak up,” she says, “to show that you can.”
Credits
Photography Hao Zeng