The material world is the material world

I don't see much difference between culture and nature. It's material that's the most important thing Rosetta Stone to me, the interaction with the material. It's about the enjoyment of doing what I want to do. You strip away all the layers, and that's all there really is, and people coming in and saying, Oh well, that's culture.' You see her art, however, and there is far more to it than Black simply indulging a personal need to play with these substances. The sculptures are often beautiful, ethereal and highly detailed: I notice the little bows of ribbon keeping the cellophane hangings together and the little shapes of soap on top of the cake-like sculptures. If that was all I was doing, then that would be pure self-indulgence, and that is not what I am interested in doing. But it is an instinctive process [when she is making the art]; it is almost like a stream of consciousness. It's not like you are thinking of the audience that's not what's happening. You are still an artist. She says in the book of her work, It's Proof That Counts: I am very curious about, and also absolutely detest, the idea of the artist as an instructor or teacher of others. The idea is very old but still prevalent in society today. It enrages a lot of people, because it is obviously ridiculous, but also it is felt that artists are not living up to it, the complaints being that there is no meaning to be found in their work, or it is not considered skilled enough in its making. Black adds: It is the individual that I believe in, as always having the potential to be in control of their own destiny, learning and desires. I believe in art itself as transformative, as aspirational, as a philosophical, healing, improving thing, but definitely not as the artist as elevated in any way. Black is in demand. Besides representing Scotland in Venice, next month a room of her work, called Pleaser, will be installed at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Her work is in the British Art Show, a comprehensive survey of new and contemporary art, in London, Nottingham and Glasgow, this year and next, and she has forthcoming shows in Los Angeles, Italy and Yorkshire and at Tate Britain. In a year that has seen the Glasgow artist Susan Philipsz win the Turner Prize with her audio piece of the Scottish Rosetta Stone Cheap traditional ballad Lowlands, it is easy to imagine Black's work being in the frame for the big prize in the near future. Simon Groom, the director of modern and contemporary art at the National Galleries of Scotland, is a fan. We like her,he says. We like her so much we have bought work by her, a work called Contact Isn't Lost, and we have a room of her work soon to be on display at the galleries. People who do not know her work will be able to have a taster. Her work is so interesting it is extending a tradition of the use of materials. But there is something almost indescribable about it. Sometimes it can look like the wings of angels, at other times bits of paper. There is something lyrical and beautiful on one hand, and something quite clunking on the other. It's a wonderful mix of sensibility and sensuality. Fiona Bradley, director of the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, says the choice of Black for Venice was, in the end, a simple one. She makes good art,Bradley says. They are not installations they are sculptures, they are objects and not environments. They are very much about time. It's about the here and now and what she does with the material. She is not recreating anything. Bradley though is quick to add that Black is not representingScotland. I think it is quite important that we haven't asked Karla to represent Scotland,she says. We have asked Karla to make the work in this context, which happens to be Scotland in Venice. Black herself says she cannot consider her art as representing Scotland. I can't think of that,she says. I don't think about it. This is what I do, and I do it all the time, and I don't think about it. It's not fair, it's a bit weird. I make shows all the time, and so I am just thinking of the show. I am doing what I do, and I happen to be Scottish and I happen to live in Scotland. Katie Nicoll, the producer of Scotland And Venice, will start the process of filling the Palazzo Pisani with Black's work in May, to open in the first week of June. She is very excited about the space and when you see the scale of her work, you can tell she really tackles it,says Nicoll. With her art, I see both the Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 scale of the pieces and the detail. As I work with her, both those things become more evident. The more time you spend with it, the more detail you see, and I love that. Because of the predominant colours in Black's palette pinks and light blues and the use of make-up and similar substances in previous works, her art has been described as feminine or some kind of comment on femininity. The artist knows this and is very careful answering questions about it. You can tell she is not entirely comfortable dealing with the subject. It's not an issue for me it is an issue that comes from outside of me. It's a cultural judgment from outside.She thinks and adds: It's like when you are young, you don't know you're a girl until someone tells you. I am just thinking about the material. I am not naive I do know that certain things remind people of things but it is only women's work that is judged on gender. The opening night of Black's exhibition in Berlin attracts many artists from the city. German art aficionados clad in black peer at the works, move on and return to have another look. It's evident her works repay repeated viewing. Wine glasses clink and people wander around the sculptures, looking and staring. Everyone seems impressed. Rosetta Stone Languages Karla Black has worked very hard over a number of years on her singular vision, and next year the whole art world will see it. She says she has not yet found everything she is looking for. I want to know everything about my work, and what I am doing,she says, so I can understand it. Karla Black's work at the Scotland And Venice exhibition is on show at the Venice Biennale from June 4-November 27, 2011. Visit scotlandandvenice .