Sophie Hirsch: Child’s Play

Sophie Hirsch invites us to an encounter with ourselves. Entering the historic assembly hall of Kunstraum Dornbirn, we find ourselves looking into our innermost being. A huge sculptural image hangs from a height of around six metres. Our first impression is that we are gazing at a close-up of motionless, glued-together fascia or flesh streaked with fat: cream-coloured, shiny silicone, hand-moulded, parasitically connected with a rich red fabric. The impression is violent and fascinating at the same time: a range of intimate emotions unfold—shocking and brutal, beautiful and repulsive, irresistible and attractive.

The exhibition’s title, Child’s Play, reinforces this individual experience of ambivalence. Hirsch dissects the relationship between psyche and body in an aesthetically appealing way, exposing the inner dissonances of being human as systemic and culturally conditioned, arising from socialisation and, above all, fluid. Her sculptures quote functional mechanisms of bodily experience and self-care. Fascia rollers become decorative elements; massage balls are filled with concrete. The loss of their original function reduces them to functioning as quotations, counteracted by the sheer carnality of the silicone.

For the first time, Hirsch explores the themes of her work in such an expansive way. She has developed an installation specially conceived for the location, based on modular scaffolding as sculptural material, display, support, and room sketch—a fascinating spatial experience in former industrial architecture.

Information and press material: Sophie Hirsch—Kunstraum Dornbirn