Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Sonja Thomsen Reflection

Sonja Thomsen creating Trace of Possibility
 
          Sonja Thomsen's Shifting the Frame lecture given yesterday left me with a mixture of emotions about her work. I did not enjoy parts of her work, yet most of her exhibitions really sparked my interest and were appealing to me. I liked the ideas and concepts behind her work, and I also thought that her interest in time, light, and the act of making could really lead her in a successful direction. Here are links to Sonja's blog and website.

          Sonja started of the lecture by discussing how she was influenced by Charles and Ray Eames' 1977  Powers of 10 film which depicted the relative scale of the Universe. She then went on to give the audience a brief background of herself which included informing us that she was a liberal arts student studying Science and Studio Art. After her undergrad Sonja went on to the San Fransisco Art Institute.

          Throughout her  lecture Sonja discussed several of her completed projects. The first one she mentioned was entitled, Permission to Wonder, in which she peeled away figures from a series of photographs taken by the ocean. Questions such as how small does the ocean make you feel and how long has the ocean been around ran through her mind as she made this series. As viewers approach these figures in galleries the images start to fade. Sonja argues that the same thing occurs in our daily lives.

         Sonja then went on to show a photograph taken on Lake Michigan by Harry Callahan. She mentioned that the lake "is really part of her visual consciousness" since she grew up in Milwaukee and saw it nearly every day. Ronni Horn also influenced Sonja's work. Horn's work, such as You are the Weather, take a lot of time, and Sonja feels the same way about her work. The artist then briefly talked about her photographs of mud puddles and of bodies of water. I feel as if anyone can go to Mount Rainier or Lake Michigan and take the photographs she did. These photographs were one of her projects that did not impress me.

          On the other hand, her sculpture piece entitled, Trace of Possibility did impress me. I like the materials that she took advantage of and how they felt heavy and light at the same time. It was really fascinating how the piece could be seen as both a cave and mountain, and I particularly liked how she portrayed perception and depth. Trace of Possibility was inspired by her time in Iceland which she found to be a place of contradictions. For example, she mentioned how the country is white with snow, yet black from all of the lava. This piece was impressive to me because it was Sonja's first sculptural piece and she was able to hire an assistant thanks to a grant, yet still physically engage with her own work as she completed it.


Lacuna 2009

          I will now discuss why I absolutely loved her project Lacuna. Lacuna is a collection of 75 photographs that she constructed into constellation. She mentioned that the word "lacuna" means "gap in knowledge," and that it is a metaphor about memory and aging. Throughout the piece there are images of landscapes, friends and family. My favorite aspect of the piece was that there was interaction amongst the viewers, and that the piece changed and developed as audiences came through and interacted with it. In addition, I particularly liked how she said that her favorite part of the piece was being able to take ownership of the piece. I think Lacuna is her best project for theses reasons in addition to the fact that the piece reflects her theme of relating to time and space.

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