∞: A COLLECTION OF WORKS BY SOPHU8
∞ is an exhibition of visceral and tactile paintings. It encompasses aseven-year body of work, that channels emotional states into figurations
of flowers in charcoal, pigment and blood on hand-sewn antique
canvases. These are extremly personal paintings which spring from a
deeply reflective and transformational time in the artist's life. Following
a near death experience, this body of work is a celebration of what
ultimately matters in his life.
A motif that began as naïve and intuitive interpretations of naturalistic
thistle-like vegetation, the flowers began to embody diverse, emotional
and psychic states through trancelike repetition. These are "psychosis
flowers" layered in malignant intricacy and smudged with pain, vascular
blooms that seem to throb and pulse with psychotropic revelation;
flowers of euphoria and exaltation; of communal revelry and dance.
Text fragments appear throughout the paintings like half-remembered
glimmers, snatched from the abyss.
Sophus has sewn into each canvas a magnetic element which allows the
work to be hung effortlessly, offering spontaneity and participation. He
prefers not to offer his work as precious, Sophus wants his audience to
touch and get close to the work. The work is raw with no embellishments,
hand-stitching and frayed edges openly demonstrate the processes,
materials and technique.
