An exhibition presents paintings and tapestries featuring irregular black devices, cryptic symbols, and orbital diagrams. A large wall-hanging painted cotton work shows rows of script-like marks that resemble writing from an unknown civilization. Symbols within a central square device surround and are surrounded by floating spheres of white and gold. Circular and elliptical lines trace paths that could represent planets, stars, or sub-atomic particles. The work raises questions about whether the signs are blueprints for advanced systems, mappings of universal substrates, or invented ciphers. The artist connects these elements to dimensions beyond Earth’s usual spatiotemporal anchors using carefully constructed game boards and multi-dimensional landing and takeoff plans, making paranormal material appear orderly and familiar.
"The image of an irregular black box with protuberances outlining some obscure device, floating in a larger field of red, confronts visitors to Orbit, an exhibition by Karla Knight at Andrew Edlin Gallery. In "Feelers" (2025-26), a large, square, wall-hanging painted cotton work, rows of cryptic symbols suggest some distant civilization's written script - a challenge to codebreakers, perhaps. Within the central black device, another set of arcane symbols in a square surrounds and is in turn surrounded by floating spheres of white and gold. Circular lines - some broken, some continuous, ellipses within circles within ellipses - trace orbital paths of planets or stars or sub-atomic particles."
"What to make of such half-familiar signs? Are they richly composed blueprints for mysterious systems connected to extraterrestrial lifeforms - schematics for advanced engines that could guide us toward wormholes to new coordinates of potential? Or attempts at mapping some underlying substrate of the universe? Such questions emerge from the shifting arrays in paintings and tapestries in Orbit. Culled from what might seem an overactive imagination fueled by generations of crackpot supernatural lore, Knight nonetheless remains tethered."
"She manages this by vectoring us toward dimensions beyond the usual spatiotemporal anchors of planet Earth via meticulously tricky game boards and multi-dimensional plans for landing strips and takeoff zones. Principally a mix of cosmological and cipher-ish figures from languages of unknown provenance, Knight's formal choices and steady-handed implementation make the paranormal seem, well ... normal."
Read at Hyperallergic
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