Karine Rupp-Stanko creates playful installations and mixed-media pieces that explore the most intangible aspects of our natural and social ecosystems.
Her work often focuses on the binary elements that we use to assess what we see: natural/manmade, dead/alive, public/private being some of the most obvious.
While exploring the intersections where these binary elements break down, she questions the role that language plays in the process, shaping our experience of nature and the stories we tell ourselves about our surroundings.
In an effort to advocate for more responsible consumption, she uses water-based inks and “scavenged” paper, always reevaluating materials that others might discard, such as junk mail and packaging.
An educator at heart, she also holds “social folding” performances at community events in Saint Paul and Minneapolis on themes related to food justice and linguistic minorities.
Biography
Karine was born in France, into a multicultural family of environmental activists. An early passion for non-alphabetical writing systems took her to Japan, where she fell in love with washi paper.
The years she spent studying linguistics shaped the way she thinks of her work, not as an object, but as an act of language.The finished product is rarely meant to last. It is an expression of an ephemeral poetic force and it has one purpose:
To help the public understand, embrace and celebrate our fragile ecosystems (natural, social and built).
Other Qualifications : Member of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Artists Collective, Japanese to French translator, Mother, Lover, Friend, Teacher, Gardener, Cook, Traveler, Knitter.
