SOPHIE KITCHING

Sophie Kitching is a US-based, French-British cross-disciplinary artist whose work portrays an unbridled exploration of the natural environment. Anchored by her experience within, and fascination for scenography, vibrant installations, works on paper, paintings and print works seek to enact the essence of a place, harbouring a perpetual sense of the botanical which is contained within the imagined framework of a window or stage.

Conceived to reinstate a fleeting moment, as if freezing the after-effect of the camera’s flash as it seers an image upon the retina, Sophie’s works invite contemplation while provoking closer inspection, to look, see and discover the individual plants, flowers and microcosms within a meticulously cultivated garden.

Many of Sophie Kitching’s pieces are abstractions of the landscapes she has travelled through. Unfurling from the purest form of a small brushstroke — which, for her, emerges naturally in the delicately curved shape of a leaf — each work progresses through a material journey within the specificity of the ecology depicted.

“Sight Specific” presents a curation of works from Sophie Kitching’s Nocturne and Invisible Green series’ alongside a selection of Emerald green panels and watercolours on paper which mediate between the two. Extending the dialogue further are inquiries on polycarbonate and fabric which lend a new perspective on landscape altogether through architectural qualities which hold the verdant elements suspended within, alongside the ephemeral animation of the painted veil as it plays with the wake of someone passing.  

The experience of various mediums takes a further departure through installation. Resting within a bath of unfiltered Thames water, the word “afloat” is displayed in neon, held in equilibrium by electrical cables within the biosphere, which continues to slowly develop its own lifecycle in the aquarium despite being cut off from the exterior world. Combining two rival elements, water and high voltage neon light, the installation establishes an alluring interplay between inside and outside and emphasises the thread that simultaneously repels and binds the natural and man-made worlds.

The array of instruments Sophie Kitching employs draw focus to her works’ points of visual difference, highlighting the micro, the barely perceptible within the flourish of each piece as a whole. A fragmented landscape is drawn back together in a process of discovery akin to exploring a new geography. Subtle differences in pattern language, colour palette and composition become the focus, bringing perspective to the work and provoking a sensorial engagement entirely specific to each viewer.

— Tiffany Jade, 2023