Vox Populi
ceramics 22x20x6cm 2018

Dogs, bears, lions and other animals in Karlson’s works should be viewed as allegorical, as symbols as they have been used in fables, fairytales and Christian art. Her works are always distinguished from cuddly toy animals by the perception of a moderate existential inevitability.
Edith Karlson’s Vox Populi is equivalent to the cause and effect relationships formulated by various religions – be it karma or original sin. She depicts the heads of various animal; each in the mouth of another animal. The motif of the “savage hunt”, with animals chasing one other and sequentially being caught in the teeth of the animals behind them, is familiar from Christian iconography. As is typical of Karlson, the central idea of Vox Populi is direct, radical and definitive: “Every shit is related to the shit that follows and forms one continuous strand of shit that no one can avoid.”