Sophie Hirsch Builds Out
As the daughter of an Austrian engineer, sculptor Sophie Hirsch has an instinct for transforming industrial materials. At last summer’s inaugural NEWD art fair in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Hirsch and her whimsical creations—which are made of less-than-natural substances including silicone, PVC, and plexiglass—stole the show, putting the Vienna transplant on the New York radar. Here, get a behind-the-scenes look as Hirsch prepares for her first solo exhibition in the US. Hirsch’s “Autokorrekt” opens March 27th at Signal gallery, 260 Johnson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, ssiiggnnaall.com.
The artist in her Brooklyn studio.
“These are photographs from a fire that happened at my father’s company this past summer. They don’t know what caused it, but they ruled out any pyromania. It inspired a lot of the compositions for this work.”
“My father’s company is a plastics company. I’ve been collecting the misshapen things that they make for many years, but I’d never felt inclined to use them. But after the fire, I felt like I could take ownership over them—I almost have to.”
This is cast from a leftover of the fire—it was originally a stack of finished plastic palettes that reached to the ceiling. It was the only thing left larger a couple of centimeters.”
“The show is called "Autokorrect," which is a German play on the word autocorrect. I’m really interested in the unpredictability of something like autocorrect—a function that reinterprets you ideas and misconstrues them.”
“I started using the silicone with the bubble wrap as a way to evoke this kind of skinned-animal imagery—I tried to find a way to present the silicone in a way that it could slither and grow.”
“Something that I always think about is the dynamic of a work. How can I make a shape where the eye continues to move? How can I create something that makes you want to move with it?”
“I started out studying photography, but I never did any street photography, I always created installations. At one point, I thought: ‘Why not just show what you build?’ That’s how I started coming to sculpture.”
“When I go to Home Depot to pick up materials, I feel a little awkward clearing out all their bungee cords and clamps—especially now that Fifty Shades of Grey is out.”
“Pomegranates are the most genius fruit. I wanted to see what it would look like to cast the pomegranate as a whole. I tried it once and I became obsessed with the repetition of it—because really each one is different.”
“I always work from personal experiences and conditions—I know it sounds a little bit lame, but a lot of times the works are influenced by dreams.”