Sophronia Cook
July 15, 2022
I wish everyone had a chance to see Sophronia’s work in person. She explores technique, space, volume, objects, memory, and colours creating pieces that are hard to grasp because they feel as if they are in movement, not literally perhaps, but your mind travels through each piece and from one to another. Her work hangs in my house, it feels like a precious shell found on the most beautiful beach.
tend your wounds,
approximately 40x30cm
How would you define your work? What is your background in the arts?
I grew up on an orange farm in California at the base of the mountains. I went to undergrad and studied printing making and sculpture and then pursued those things in grad school. I love art and grew up with a mom who was constantly making things, she taught me how to make things. My parents good friend was also a artist and I grew up going to his studio and watching him work.
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What moves you to do what you do?
I’m moved by textures and time. I want to explore temporal collapses that are reconfigured and fused together.
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What do you want to express, do or say through your work?
I intuitively construct and hint towards a visceral sensation of the body and at the same time seek to obscure and protect a language of memories and affections.
My work is a combination of textures. The digital collages are moments from the present mixed with images from the place I grew up.
(8) Sophronia in her studio posing with one of her pieces; billy time, approximately 40x20cm
What tools do you use?
(1) Resin
(2) Acrylic
(3) Aluminum
(4) Tape
(5) Plastic bags
(6) Canvas
(7) Objects I love
What was the technical process throughout this particular project?
In this project, I was thinking of how much I wanted a vacuum sealer. A machine that can take molds through heat and compression. I don’t have access to one so I tried to create my own. That is how these pieces came to be. I wanted to reference that feeling of compression and being held. I take large plastic bags and insert the images in; then the resin is poured in and I use weights on the top and objects placed underneath. It is important that the objects that are being molded underneath are objects I love and have been gifts or precious studio things.
what it means to walk around in a body,
approximately 40x30cm
loop of butterflies,
approximately 40x30cm
Do you have a dream project?
I have so many dream projects! One I have been thinking of is an installation in a giant greenhouse. A greenhouse is a space or spiral of many species of life. A vessel that allows and contains growth to take place; my pieces in this installation would be an illumination of these timelines.
Find the pieces we created with Sophronia here
