Sofia Duchovny’s mobile art

Sofia Duchovny first got the idea behind her current work a year ago, while in New York. Planning to stay in New York for only three months, she wanted to work on big sculptures, yet didn’t have the time or the space to really explore large scale as she wished. She also hoped that she could ideally create work that she could take home at the end of her residency. The idea was simple, coming from the need to make physical work while travelling and wanting to work in large scale without limitations. The resulting sculptures are transformable, transportable, and they can be dismantled and rearranged into a very small object that will fit a small bag. In a way, the sculptures function as tents – sticks and fabric that can be easily transported, which can then be re-assembled into large scale objects that create an environment within and around them.

Sofia’s works are a practical solution to the problems a lot of artists face: travelling a lot, not having much money, not having much space for storing artworks.

During her three months in Helsinki, Sofia made two finished sculptures and developed an idea for a whole new work. She started painting watercolours depicting picnic situations, playing with the idea of romanticism, the juxtaposition of urbanism and nature, camping and the outdoors. Using watercolour as a medium both stresses the romantic theme and connects it to the idea of portability and travelling.

Sofia has also recently found a new interest in performance art. While previously her works could go through a transformation by themselves, now Sofia also considers putting herself on stage. This makes sense as her work is extremely physical. The tent sculptures demand a very tangible relationship between the material and the artist. Creating the sculptures almost looks like a performance, as Sofia uses her whole body to hold things in place while fixing others, bending the pole sticks, dealing with the sculpture’s material tension.

The work Sofia ends up creating is personal. It has to do with Sofia’s life and also the life of artists in general. Sofia gets information and inspiration from talking to other artists. She met a lot of nice people during the time she spent in Helsinki and she felt truly inspired. However, what she liked most was the feeling of disconnection from her own art scene. For Sofia, being dropped into an art pool of new interests and new ideas was most refreshing.

Read more:
http://sofiaduchovny.com

Images courtesy of the artist.