Artist 342
Sophia van Wyk
Sculpture
the practice of seiðr
Sophia van Wyk (b. 1981) is a South African artist who specializes in sculpture. Van Wyk explores the concept of weaving one’s own fate. By envisioning the future and then creating a present version of it - her sculptural works as Sophia Van Wyk describes it, “the artworks can be seen as tools for the practice of seiðr. They can be interpreted as road signs in the journey from an inner to the outer world.”
Van Wyk’s captures significant moments, both socio-political and personal. In her sculptures she creates subversive and non- representational biomorphic forms that becomes a metaphor for ‘new meaning’. Taking insight from her background in cabinet making and woodwork her abstract sculptural and painted shapes examines her inter- action with the world and how it’s influenced by the current news, world events, social injustices and her personal history and memories.
In her sculptures she blends various iconographies: ranging from popular culture, ancient civilisations to futurism. She draws into question established traditions.
“I create alternative portrayals of encounters and experiences in order to wonder about the possibilities to come.” For Van Wyk, the process begins with clouds: “Commemorating days that are significant by photographing the clouds mapped across the sky on that day, I then create sketches of these temporary forms, capturing their essential shapes in watercolour. My art-making is self-reflexive. It is both ritualistic and a method of connecting to my unconscious.”
By employing modes of association, Van Wyk begins to identify formal structures within the shapes, developing them into multi-dimensional art objects. The translation into object functions as praxis, the cyclic relation between theory and practice.
Through this process of archiving her memories she creates a form out of meaningful moments both socio-political and personal.
The manner in which she navigates space, time and consciousness through positive and negative space and colour verse material all cumulate into a final form.
She incorporates softer materials and stitching in some of the works, the artist deliberately connects to so-called feminine techniques and subverts traditionally ‘masculine’ techniques.
This approach sits in contrast with the traditional masculine associations of the other mediums used (namely wood carving, and casting in bronze and concrete).
These dual approaches are in conversation with each other across the body of work, contributing to what Judith Butler terms “the gender complexity”, where normative gender constructs are challenged and expanded.
Van Wyk explains: “I locate my art-making in the post-truth (truth being ‘a matter of assertion’) and myth-making embedded in the Anthropocene. The current Information Age in particular intersects with past and future epochs.”
“This latest body of work is an attempt to contribute towards new narratives by imagining potential structures and shapes to explore new frontiers of knowledge and future worlds.
…Each piece is a quest to answer questions and gather evidence - through my interactions with the world, and my ongoing investigation into the human condition and the nature of consciousness.
My lens fluctuates between the cosmic, the socio-political and the personal. There is a strong link to materiality in my art-making. The nature of materials excites me and guides my unending curiosity as I embark on playful explorations that celebrate these materials (from soft to hard, cement to fabric and thread). My attempt to find form through my sculptures is also an attempt at finding meaning.”
‘Frequency Of You’ is opening at Kalashnikovv Gallery in Cape Town where Sophia van Wyk will be presenting her Solo Exhibition on the 29th of August 2024. Don’t miss the chance to see her works in person!
Comments