Works by Sonia Gomes (born 1948, Brasil) Plus - a lighted work by Jason Moran in the background
The eclectic fabric contortions made by Sonia Gomes ( born Brasil 1948 ) simultaneously evoke the idea of viscera and the sacred object, mixing expressions of love, domesticity, and totemic terror. Weeping fabrics that she has either found or has been given, Gomes follows the fault lines of affect or memory - this child's blanket, that woman's dress, a tablecloth - making and revealing arrangements intuitively, as if she were weaving her history with that of somebody else.
In her sheer candour, her sculptures become impressively expressionistic, seemingly free to do as they like, as Gomes herself seems to think about the nature of her artistic process.
Her work reflects belief expressed by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo - that his sculpture is a process of revelation, of rendering explicit the inner life of the material. He is known to have said, "Carving is easy, you just have to go down to the skin and stop." Skin is important within the body of Gomes's work. The organ of sensuous contact with the world at once defines and limits its experience. It is not just about finding a work of art well designed or beautiful, it's about feeling it through your fingers.
Because cloth is a second skin, a sense of personal history permeates Gomes's fabric sculptures. A believer in the élan dital, a creative force in all organisms, she trusts that every material is magnetized with the latency of life. With that in mind, looking at her sculptures and fabrics reminds us that if almost every piece of fabric can be woven, molded, or tied together in order to become something new, then not only does the object have an inner life, but we, who are experiencing it, have it as well.
Works by Sonia Gomes (born 1948, Brasil) Plus - a lighted work by Jason Moran in the background
The eclectic fabric contortions made by Sonia Gomes ( born Brasil 1948 ) simultaneously evoke the idea of viscera and the sacred object, mixing expressions of love, domesticity, and totemic terror. Weeping fabrics that she has either found or has been given, Gomes follows the fault lines of affect or memory - this child's blanket, that woman's dress, a tablecloth - making and revealing arrangements intuitively, as if she were weaving her history with that of somebody else.
In her sheer candour, her sculptures become impressively expressionistic, seemingly free to do as they like, as Gomes herself seems to think about the nature of her artistic process.
Her work reflects belief expressed by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo - that his sculpture is a process of revelation, of rendering explicit the inner life of the material. He is known to have said, "Carving is easy, you just have to go down to the skin and stop." Skin is important within the body of Gomes's work. The organ of sensuous contact with the world at once defines and limits its experience. It is not just about finding a work of art well designed or beautiful, it's about feeling it through your fingers.
Because cloth is a second skin, a sense of personal history permeates Gomes's fabric sculptures. A believer in the élan dital, a creative force in all organisms, she trusts that every material is magnetized with the latency of life. With that in mind, looking at her sculptures and fabrics reminds us that if almost every piece of fabric can be woven, molded, or tied together in order to become something new, then not only does the object have an inner life, but we, who are experiencing it, have it as well.