SHIFTING STATES: SOPHIE DERRICK

SOPHIE DERRICK TALKS ABOUT HER NEW SHOW SHIFTING STATES

The artists latest work centres around movement, abstraction and the distortion of reality, yet adheres to her previous, signature style of portrait painting. Derrick explains, "This new body of work still very much focuses on the ideas around portraiture and masking that I have been exploring through my work for the last few years. Continuing, she elaborates, "Challenging the photographic and painterly mediums and blurring the boundaries between the two has also been a great interest to me within my work, and this new collection explores this further, mixing the two mediums to a greater extent and using paint and the photographic image as an obstacle within the work, abstracting my 'self' and creating a skewed and distorted reality of what the piece actually is."
Derrick's work recently came to the media's attention when she collaborated with singer/songwriter FYFE, also known as Paul Dixon, for the artwork for his singles, album cover, and the music video to 'Solace' - where the artist is seen painting on the musicians face and a background to match, which in a way references the performative nature of Derrick's practice.

SHIFTING STATES will focus on the movement of the paint and reference the movement of the subject, "My work seems to hold an essence of movement within it and I have previously experimented with this by creating films of my process. This new body of work explores movement within the images themselves, bringing to life the performative element of the work, and pushing its digital boundaries."
The colour palette of Derrick's latest collection of works takes influence from the films of Wes Anderson, and reflects the antiqued pastel tones that are so often present in his work as well as the surreal landscapes and mis en scene that take place. “I just love the vibrancy and the confidence in these quirky films. The bold colours that are always used really depict the films in a fun, current, and quirky way.”
Talking us through the process of the new works Derrick states, “I am still using painting and photography in the new collection, but have pushed my experimentation with the merging of the two further. The images have become even more abstracted, using different photographic techniques and ways of presenting the painted aspects of the work.”
Derrick explains the ultimate mission of SHIFTING STATES, " I wanted to translate the movement used within the initial photographic part of my work into the images as I don't feel I have done this before. I have made films but never achieved a sense of movement within the final image. This movement has really tied in with challenging the mediums of painting and photography, distorting and abstracting the real image of 'me', bringing into question what the image really is, and highlighting the loss of the real.”

View more of Sophie Derrick's work
Sophie Derrick SHIFTING STATES exhibition information

Sat, 25/04/2015 - 12:00 - Fri, 31/07/2015 - 18:00

Private view:

Thu, 07/05/2015 - 18:00 - 21:00

Where:

The DegreeArt.com Gallery, 12a Vyner Street, London, E2 9DG