ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Karborn

We're excited to feature you on our DARKNET blog! Your vision is so distinct and unique with a very detailed and delicate workflow. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your artistic journey!

Im a native Londoner who works with evidence of time travel and broken machines. I want useful, spiritual but never mystical ideas around man and nature. Im also an independent man, in that I cultivate a direct relationship with my collectors and audience. It’s gotta be one to one to make something proper in the underground...

How long have you been doing art? Please tell us a little about how you got started and how you have grown over the years!

It started around 2002 when computers, cameras, and scanners were beginning to come of age. The cameras, at best, were 1megapixel, impossibly expensive and not much use. There was a scanner at school I could use and (carefully and without the eyes of the IT teacher observing me) I placed plants, leaves, flowers and so on directly onto the scanner surface (artwork - ‘Pauses’ 2002 below). The work brought me some small audience, enough to encourage me on and set my interests firmly in place for the future.

In your art, we see objects, characters, numbers, shapes fading in one another, almost creating more dimensions. Please tell us about the world behind your art and your inspiration.

I like primal, classical, scientific, weird ideas that I can hang on primitive geometry, primary colors, and human figures. Time meets brick walls. Colors oscillate, gravity changes, what if's… I want to build understandable ideas… not abstracts, but solid robust ideas or explorations in proper forms. Some of them might even be useful or cautionary.

We see lots of your work is hand made! Tell us about your creative process. What kind of materials do you use to achieve the final form of your art?  

I always want to keep working in different ways, harmonizing classic processes with new technologies if possible. Screen-printing, painting, collage, sculpture, and 3D is the focus at the moment. The relationship between the execution, medium, and idea is, I believe, a foundation for good works.

Do you listen to music while creating? And how do you see it affecting your work?

Yes. Often I work in silence. When listening to music, I often play lots of my vinyl records too… I like well built sound system cuts. Here’s a couple.

A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣Loefah - Rufage ⁣⁣⁣⁣
Sully - Flock
⁣⁣Omar S - Thank you for letting me be myself.⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣Roy of the Ravers - Emotinum (secret mix)⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣Drexciya - Black Sea (aqualung cut)⁣⁣
⁣⁣Omar S - Bitch…. I’ll Buy Another One!!!⁣⁣

We see one of your works used as album artwork for Eckle! How often do you work with other musicians or artists in general and also if you could name a few for us?

In May 2020, I'm releasing a set of handprints on lathe cut dubplate records with exclusive tracks in 1 off sleeves artwork by myself, with music from a top set of recording artists… The KVB, Nu-Mark, Sully, Madeaux, dBridge to name a few.

Finally, we would love to ask - What would you say to up and coming artists who want to pursue their passion?

It's the kind of question that unfortunately invites mushy or cliche answers… ehe, but, for what its worth, here we go - make some real things. make a lot of it, distinct and lean and quick. Knowing when something is worth investing more time in is as important as being able to throw out lots of exploration work and sketches. It’s a language. A conversation… you can have your day if you have something interesting to say... or maybe not. Nothings guaranteed or certain there. And why do you want to do it? So what... Who should care? Why should anyone care? It’s got to be a good story if you’re going to listen. Right?