Sophie VV

One past work

Abbuffata

What: this piece looks like a sitting booth you could find in a restaurant. With two benches and a table attached to the wall. This restaurant could be part of a hotel somewhere in the mountains, where it's really warm inside, overdecorated, with wood everywhere. Abbuffata is made out of wood that has been darkened. The wood is cut in a wavy way, as if the shape was trembling or slowly melting.

How: It's a very simple assemblage made out of the same wood. Even if it is refering to a restaurant/diner booth, it is too fragile to sit on. Sometimes it comes with a wooden cigar placed on the table. It's made with found wood but if i had to do it again i would use thicker wood, like 20 or 30mm.

why: i was trying to create mini sceneries happening within the space and i felt that those booths have a strong narrative power. You can easily picture a potential surrounding, a smell, some characters, maybe candles? I pictured it as a space where it's warm, with dim light, you come in and you're really hungry after this day out in the snow and you hear the conforting sound of eggs sizzling in a pan. But it could be something totally different. I just think that in their silent manners, those types of furniture can be very conversational and generous.

Is what you are looking for this sense of this potential of anything that it can give away (in terms of possible narratives) or do you search for something specific (in terms of creating your own specific or less specific narrative that you try to put on / that you let shimmer through the scene you created)? i.o.w. was there a specific direction you wanted to push the narrative (slightly) in and how did you try to do that if so?

how does it apply to previous work: Still connected to the idea of generating these sceneries or decor, I presented Abbuffata with another piece, I forgot its title. It was salamis made out of expanding foam plastic bags and rope, hanging from the ceiling. It could be still part of this mountain cabin scenario. Being either a tacky fake decoration to welcome the guests into the restaurant, or actual meat hanging in the kitchen. I see them as also creating this same kind crude familiarity and warmth.

What scene produced it? what kind of context? Abbuffata was made during an exchange program. I had moved to a different kind of studio and had access to different kind of tools. So my practice had to change a bit. I went from working a lot with metal and resins to working more with wood. I guess the physical aspect and cultural use of wood led me to these heavy rural furnitures. The reason why i didn't buy the thick wood is that i knew i wouldn't be able to bring anything back to France so i didn't want to spend too much money on materials

Take it to a broader context? I don't know, i don't really think about that. Do i even care?

Steve: Ha, love that answer. Indeed, why should you feel any obligation to care? I am struck by the context the work comes out of. The banquet and the restaurant. In these contexts decorative furniture is an agent of presentation and performance. A restaurant and a banquet both require a certain etiquette, both define certain modes of behaviour which your work seems to rub against. If the banquet and restaurant are presentation and performance spaces how does the decorative furniture contribute to that performance or presentation?]

One current work

what: Serie of stools inspired by traditional african wooden stools. Often these stools are mimicking animal shapes, with four legs and a head. Mine will be playing with this anthropomorphic aspect of the furniture.

how: They are made of polystyrene, fiber and resin. For now the resin is tinted. I might spray paint them in the end.

why: I'm intrigued by these animal or antropomorphic features that have been given to furniture or objects in general throughout time. As if it was giving the personality or power of the animal, suggesting more than just the function, but also a potential subject with its own existence.

[Steve: I would like some examples here, please]

How is it similar to the previous work? Still trying to work on the narrative potential of materials and forms, how we are able to read them and through what type of knowledge; how they have been used through time and how i can reuse that and reintepret it. How is it different? I have more power over my choices, they are more situated in the type of references but also more independant and autonomous from it. Since the first one I learnt how to really digest and distance myself from my starting points, and come up with a vocabulary that is its own and doesn't rely on other pre existing references.

how is your method of working in relation to this? how did the method itself change (the thinking and maybe also the actual working process)?

Who can help you, how? Discussing is really helpful. Sometimes i get so focused on a specific reading of a work that I forget other potentialities. Or sometimes i think some things are obvious when they are not. For those reasons, conversation is really important.

Future work

What could it be? Fabric pieces. Treated as a table cloth, with painting on it inspired by those medieval banquet engravings where the perspective is realy weird and each objects becomes more of a sign or signifier. What makes it necessary? I'm working on creating those scenarios with families of objects that could have been invited to a wedding, a diner party.. or maybe it's a crime scene taking place somewhere in a summerhouse, during lunch. Anyway, I would use the fabric works as a decor for this scene. The same way a tabe cloth is a decor for the meal.