Sophie Victoria The spectacle

I am interested in the play of light and the way it alters our human experience. The spectacle is an assemblage of apertures – windows, mirrors and screens – and a theatrical play of light. By wrapping the painting with iridescent material used for fashion items, such as bags, clothes and shoes, it transforms the work into a hyperreal object that evokes an experience that is ineffable. It is hard not to be drawn in.

The spectacle references Guy Debord’s 1967 book La société du spectacle (‘The society of the spectacle’), in which he offers a critique of contemporary consumerism and commodity fetishism. The spectacle mimics the idealised filters that permeate our image culture.

Sophie Victoria, 2022