Art: Sophia Narrett
Sophia's embroidery artwork is stunning, original, and endlessly interesting. We don't always publish artist statements, but hers is too fascinating and lovely to miss. At twenty-four, Sophia has already built an impressive body of work, which can be found at www.sophianarrett.com. Make your way there after browsing our favorite pieces from her DISCO GARDEN series.
Above: High Love Five
Title: Sometimes it is EasyARTIST STATEMENT: I use embroidery to create images where people harvest natural landscapes for each other, sex, happiness, beauty, and of course love.
Literary and cinematic stories of eternal love, mythic disco culture, and the sexualized version of life presented in contemporary pop and hip hop music videos, all contribute to my language of describing people in love. I am inspired by performances that create alluring tableaux even to the point of irony, and showcase people pouring their hearts out in desperate gestures. Popular, glittery vocabulary can express something real that is at the core of humanity. Glamour can embody the sublime, in that it comprises a beauty that goes beyond the nature of everyday life and regularity, even if it is contrived or manufactured.
Embroidery thread has the ability to render while still maintaining its own unique material identity in the same way that paint does. My work stems from drawing, and I understand it in the context of the history of painting and image making. Yet even as I consider thread primarily as a drawing or painting tool, it is still an object tied to a history in craft and to our everyday world in a way that paint is not. This object-ness allows the thread to resonate with other materials outside of the picture plane, including ribbons, artificial flowers, plastic and wooden armatures that frame the embroidered scenes. These materials, as well as the elaborate nature of drawing in embroidery, are sincere, at times overwrought expressions of love and beauty.
Title: If I Have to Break My Neck to See It Then I Will
Title: Today, No Matter What Happens, Will Change the Rest of Our Lives
Today, No Matter What Happens, Will Change the Rest of Our Lives (detail)
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