Sofie Thorsen
08 Mar - 17 Apr 2019
SOFIE THORSEN
8 March – 17 April 2019
What potential can be found in a line? Using string flicked against a wall to make a line, which is echoed in a nearby corner of the room, the artist demarcates where a two-dimensional surface gives way to the third dimension and a sequence of works mounted on panels. This quickly applied line usually serves the purpose, in building works for example, as a straight line,; as archaic as it might seem, of marking the line dividing where a space begins and ends. A single line can alter the relationship between a surface and a space, opening it up, or it can also draw attention to an empty area. Together, through different thickness lines and varying relationships to both elements of the space and each other, a spatial dimension can be defined and even point to a perspective from which the entire work is intended to be viewed. This type of line also hints at the time frame of its making: a visible trace of powdered pigment serves as a reminder of its creation and hints at potential activity therein. And this straight line also stands for, in its exactitude, efficiency and the degree to which the artist is in control of the situation at hand. The technique the artist uses, making a mark with string with pigment on it as a physical act in which a surface has been touched, is an indexical gesture towards what is potentially missing.
In addition to her works using lines on walls, Sofie Thorsen has, in recent years, called attention to surfaces, spaces and temporal structures through the interaction with new, even contrasting features: rigid, repetitive patterns of absolutely straight lines next to each other are broken by lines that change course and touch other through chance, and tension occurs through the yielding of control. A constant, however, remains the spatial nature of making these marks by causing string that has been infused with pigment to hit and mark a surface by most minimal means, evoking an infinite art space.
Her collages bring this line back into play in a different way, delineating what can be perceived as a space: lines outline an area, defining a shape. The artist extracts surfaces between lines which provided with a sense of materiality by painting them. As a result, the painted paper no longer lies flat on the surface. Cut-out forms are then brought together as small format objects of art and lines, surfaces and define spaces which then become a relief. This causes the physical context of the work to come to the fore as a three-dimensional element, whether in the form of a protuberance or an indentation. The relief has a profound effect on the surface adjacent to it which provides a two-dimensional pendant to each movement in the space itself.
In Sofie Thorsen's presentation, walls serve as fundamental surfaces on which marks are made or picture panels hang. One of the walls in the exhibition has been painted so that it provides, both in its texture and colour, a point of reference. Opposite that wall, collage reliefs hang, consolidating the various elements in the show, drawing viewers' attention to the movements and reflections that are part and parcel of the entire installation as a whole.
©Verena Gamper, 2019
English translation: Deborah S. Phillips
8 March – 17 April 2019
What potential can be found in a line? Using string flicked against a wall to make a line, which is echoed in a nearby corner of the room, the artist demarcates where a two-dimensional surface gives way to the third dimension and a sequence of works mounted on panels. This quickly applied line usually serves the purpose, in building works for example, as a straight line,; as archaic as it might seem, of marking the line dividing where a space begins and ends. A single line can alter the relationship between a surface and a space, opening it up, or it can also draw attention to an empty area. Together, through different thickness lines and varying relationships to both elements of the space and each other, a spatial dimension can be defined and even point to a perspective from which the entire work is intended to be viewed. This type of line also hints at the time frame of its making: a visible trace of powdered pigment serves as a reminder of its creation and hints at potential activity therein. And this straight line also stands for, in its exactitude, efficiency and the degree to which the artist is in control of the situation at hand. The technique the artist uses, making a mark with string with pigment on it as a physical act in which a surface has been touched, is an indexical gesture towards what is potentially missing.
In addition to her works using lines on walls, Sofie Thorsen has, in recent years, called attention to surfaces, spaces and temporal structures through the interaction with new, even contrasting features: rigid, repetitive patterns of absolutely straight lines next to each other are broken by lines that change course and touch other through chance, and tension occurs through the yielding of control. A constant, however, remains the spatial nature of making these marks by causing string that has been infused with pigment to hit and mark a surface by most minimal means, evoking an infinite art space.
Her collages bring this line back into play in a different way, delineating what can be perceived as a space: lines outline an area, defining a shape. The artist extracts surfaces between lines which provided with a sense of materiality by painting them. As a result, the painted paper no longer lies flat on the surface. Cut-out forms are then brought together as small format objects of art and lines, surfaces and define spaces which then become a relief. This causes the physical context of the work to come to the fore as a three-dimensional element, whether in the form of a protuberance or an indentation. The relief has a profound effect on the surface adjacent to it which provides a two-dimensional pendant to each movement in the space itself.
In Sofie Thorsen's presentation, walls serve as fundamental surfaces on which marks are made or picture panels hang. One of the walls in the exhibition has been painted so that it provides, both in its texture and colour, a point of reference. Opposite that wall, collage reliefs hang, consolidating the various elements in the show, drawing viewers' attention to the movements and reflections that are part and parcel of the entire installation as a whole.
©Verena Gamper, 2019
English translation: Deborah S. Phillips