A&D ANNUAL 2021
Sophie Rhodes
Sophie Rhodes is an artist working predominantly in a drawing and printmaking. In her practice, she aims to represent a disruption to the polarisation between science and art, which she portrays through the use of scientific imagery and aesthetics, including botanical illustration. Her practice is informed by New Materialism, specifically the representations of ontologies that question plant-human differentiation. Sophie's work revolves around the possibility of transforming biology into new artistic landscapes, including the re- imagining of traditional botanical drawing. She is also concerned with art as climate activism, including responses to eco-anxiety and distress. The work ‘Sympoiesis’ is series of pen and ink drawings of microscopic plant slides turned into large-scale video projections. This transformation of biological artefacts features science obscured, allowing for the exploration of intersubjectivity in a way that make plants amenable to aesthetic appreciation rather than traditional empirical observation. An insular drawing process is presented, metamorphosed in motion, recognising the interiority of plants, positioning them as our companions in the multispecies ecology.
DegreeBachelor of Fine Arts (Honours)DisciplineDrawing, Photomedia/PhotographyWebsitesophieoliviarhodes.myportfolio.comInstagram@sophieoliviartEmailsophieoliviarhodes@gmail.com