Sophies Kool Page

TEXT ONE 1) Describe the texts (text, media, art).

3) Why are these texts is of interest to you?

4) What is its relation to your self-directed research?

5) How can the questions and issues these texts raise become work?

6) List research strands suggested by your peers

1)The media I showed was a youtube video of a hamster that pretends to get shot and die. It's lasts a few seconds and looks quite real. The hamster is faking it brilliantly. I chose a text I was currently reading which is an essay by Georg Simmel called The Handle (Georg Simmel, Two Essays: The Handle, and The Ruin, Hudson Review, 11:3, 1958, p.371) that I came across while reading the Cabinet issue about containers. The text goes through the history of the handle and its formal aspect (utility, decoration) as well as its conceptual implications (the movement, the body) Soup (1964) is a painting by latvian-american artist Vija Celmins. It's a small realistic painting representing a porcelain bowl where what could be hot dumpling/meatballs soup is being poured with a big metal spoon.

2)3)4) I chose the video quite randomly and i'm not sure how it informs my practice. Maybe i could fantasize on the fact that it's about faking and bluffing and that it could relate to the way I use the idea of representation, mimicry and playfulness in my sculptures. The way the essay on the handle was thoroughly investigating what could seem to be a trivial subject really interested me. I try to work that way myself, believing that nothing is banal enough to not notice it/spend time on it. Apart from this research method I also really enjoyed learning things about the handle, its history and formal variations as I am currently working on baskets, bowls, bags and other kind of containers. I've always been interested in the handle because it's such an easily understandable shape. You instinctively know you're supposed to grab it and how and in which direction. I wasn't necessarily formally inspired by thoses references, but more by what it could mean to refer to the handle and what it implies in terms of use, containment, and physical interaction. Studying the handle led me to another feature of some containers which are feet. In the same way as the handle they can be useful and decorative, and sometimes useless and decorative. Now I want to make feet for some upcoming sculptures.

Soup makes me feel warm and hungry. This banal moment is so well depicted that you could almost smell it and feel the warmth over your face as you're about to eat. It is modest and strong. As for the handle essay, I enjoy the amount of care in representing a common situation. And as I said previously it is something that I am personally interested in. Spending time on something random and making its banality matter. This painting is part of a serie that refers a lot to cooking. I also use it in my work because it is something so easy to relate on. the only representation of it can make you smell or taste it very easily. I like this very intuitive way to physically react to something you see.