Text written by Sophia van Wyk

Supported by the Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust, the exhibition explores the complex range of learned behaviours we perform in our relationship with intimacy, love, shame, disfunction and trauma. Through a playful process and visual language, I attempt to re-construct and re-think our individual and collective ‘love default’; a term I adopt to define unconscious, learned behavioural patterns. Viewed as an attempt to open up the conversation and consider alternative, more conscious ways to exist, my art-making draws on a range of inspirations, from Homer’s Odyssey and the myth of Arethusa and Alpheus to existentialist philosophy and pop psychology. Through an intuitive mash-up of iconography — from ancient civilisations to popular culture and futurism — I question established traditions and create alternative encounters. My process begins by photographing clouds, commemorating and documenting significant moments (both socio-political and personal) in time, from which to make sketches. I then translate these references into multi-dimensional art objects using materials such as wood, concrete, paint, mixed media and fabric. There is a strong link to materiality, and my exploration of circular economies, post-futures and the current climate crisis. My attempt to find form is also an attempt to find meaning.