Sophia Pompéry — No-Things ou la vie silencieuse des choses — Dix9 Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 21 → May 11, 2013

Sophia Pompéry produces video works and objects that derive from her interest in everyday objects and physical phenomena. Minimalistic in the choice of material Pompéry’s conceptual works are motivated by a desire to slow down the sense of time. Their poetical ephemera leads the viewer into a state of contemplation.

For her fi rst solo show in France, the artist presents an emblematic choice of works revealing her phenomenological perception of things. Pompery is inspired by the term “external memory”, coined by the neuroscientist Kevin O’Regan; Although each person has his or her own highly specifi c wealth of perception, it seems that each memory has its origin in a corporeal experience itself. In this respect Pompery’s work is an invitation to a dialogue with the viewer, playing with physical laws, viewing patterns and personal expectations.

Questionning normality, everyday life objects reveal their mystery; therefore they are not anymore trivial — for example displaying two exactly identical popcorn clones, or two meters showing 200 cm but differing in length. Sometimes the artist uses tricks to make the assumed impossible become truth, for example by making a candle burn from each side with the help of a vacuum cleaner. (lighting up burning down) Pompéry avoids picture editing or special effects. Instead she plays with physical phenomena: water is applied on a dark tabletop refl ecting a window like a framed second image until the evaporating water starts to deprive the view outside.(Still Water); or a soap bubble created by playing the fl ute (Kawala Play). The lively play of colors and refl ections appears to be a visual realization of the tone. As the bubble grows, its iridescent membrane becoming increasingly lighter and more transparent, it mirrors the room ever more clearly — until the sound stops and the bubble bursts, eclipsing the brightness in that very moment.

Artistic and scientifi c at once, Sophia Pompéry’s works invite us to reconsider the world that surrounds us. Should we believe in what we see? By playing with our visual perception, the artist traps the viewer without denying reality.

By attaching all importance to small nothings, Pompéry’s work questions the viewers fi rm beliefs and reveals a poetic side in another truth.

*Kevin O’Regan was Director of the Institute for Psychology and Perception, Université Paris Descartes (CNRS)