Sophie Bouvier Ausländer Words, Works, Worlds

7 Oct 2020-23 Jan 2021

Overview

Much time of Sophie Bouvier Ausländer’s past years has been dedicated to words, namely her PHD at Slade London, culminating in her doctoral thesis on the notion of tangibility, contemporary reliefs and continuous dimensions. The topic ties in with Bouvier’s preeminent, multi-faceted interest in our planet as a sculpture, present in all her bodies of work, and underlines the importance of understanding our world from an artistic viewpoint. Making Worlds, the title of Daniel Birnbaum’s 2006 Biennale, expressed the desire to launch a new beginning from existing parameters, a credo Bouvier very much shares. To complement her thesis at Slade, Bouvier presented a work not surprisingly entitled Ways of World Making\Self Portrait. A freestanding, octagonally shaped library, it consists of all the publications she read and researched to nourish her thesis. Every book has an individually created opening within a structure of connected yet moveable walls that can be experienced while navigating around it. An autobiographical sculpture, visually permeable, whose information is accessible beneath the surface, while having to dig deeper to explore its depths and mysteries. Since Covid-19, Bouvier has worked on a new series entitled The Financial Times series, emulating the freer use of colour and gestures. Skin coloured papers, containing news on our global instability, are again covered, then harmed and laid bare, yet simultaneously recharged, rearranging our post-pandemic world and vision.