Sophia Pauley

Sophia Pauley (b.1994) is a Welsh artist from Cardiff, currently finishing her 2 year Masters at the Royal College of Art. In 2018 she received a First Class degree in painting from Edinburgh College of Art and was the winner of the Artist’ Collecting Society 12 month Studio Residency Award. She has recently had her first solo show in Glasgow as winner of the RSA WASPS award 2022.

Sophia fluidly shifts between painting, drawing and sculptural installation, conveying the intense feelings of nostalgia and emotion attached to attempting to succeed in elite performance sport. The obsessive, repetitive process-led studio production mirrors the immersion of mind and body when training. Sophia’s work comprises an ever-changing material exploration; she intuitively finds ways beyond the traditional modes of painting, resulting in three dimensional wall and floor based works. Her work reflects the parallels and contradictions of the concept of ‘flow’: an analysis of adrenaline, attention and control.

Making is a labour intensive process for me: through control, I feel freedom.

The studio is my own haven of isolation, away from the world in a familiar setting, away from chaos. A place where I let my thoughts drift in the contemplative state known as ‘flow’.

I feel time differently, one perception when I am ‘in flow’ and one when I am not.

This latest series encapsulates the dizzying, addictive feeling of adrenaline which fuels the unique intensely time-consuming processes that make up the aesthetics of these works. There is such satisfaction in labour, of pushing one's body and materials to their limits, I feel I have achieved being in the present, just for a second… until it’s gone.

I am forever chasing this feeling, this feeling of being ‘in flow’, when the body and mind are in perfect synchrony.

RCA Degree Show 2023: Truman Brewery 13-16 July

Sophia will be showing her latest installation of rope paintings Which Lane, 1 or 2? at her degree show. The texture of these paintings are made from a labour-intensive process of hand-cut and dyed pieces of cotton rope. Rope is a symbol of time and cutting of tension. I am in control of this time, with the illusion of accomplishment.

PDF: CV

Medium:

Hand dyed rope on wood

Size:

240 x 190 cm (each 240 x 90 cm)

Rope diptych 0.2: Which Lane? series – Hand dyed rope on wood, aluminium frame, 70 x 25 cm (each 35 x 25 cm) Installation image: Third Floor Show, Royal College of Art. Photo credit Gregor Petrikovic

Rope diptych 0.2: Which Lane? series detail – Photo credit Gregor Petrikovic

Rope painting 0.1: Lane 1 or 2? series – Photo credit Gregor Petrikovic

Rope diptych 0.2: Which Lane? series detail

Rope painting 0.1: Lane 1 or 2? series – Hand dyed rope on wood, steel frame, 10 x 12 cm

Rope painting 0.1: Lane 1 or 2? series detail

Medium:

Hand dyed rope on wood

abstract contemporary fluidity illusion movement painting sculptural

FLOW MATTERS solo: The Briggait, Glasgow, 2022

Using industrial materials, scent and sound this installation reflects the parallels and contradictions of the embodied and disembodied concept of ‘flow’. Based upon Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi theory of the 'state of flow'.

Photo credits: Alexander Hoyles

‘Tied to Adrenaline’ 0.3 & 0.4 – To Left: Wood, ceramic tile, dyed rope, grommets. (excluding rope) 30 x 20 x 10 cm (rope 5.4 m from ceiling) 4.08min looped audio inside To Right: Wood, ceramic tile, dyed cotton rope, cellophane bag, resin, grommets, nails, salt scent. (including rope) 120 x 55 x 10 cm

‘Tied to Adrenaline’ 0.3 detail – 4.08min looped audio inside.

‘Tied to Adrenaline’ 0.2 & 0.3 – To right: Wood, ceramic tile, dyed rope, resin, grommets, nails. 1.5 x 2 m

‘Tied to Adrenaline’ 0.4 detail –

‘Tied to Adrenaline’ 0.1 – Resin, cellophane bag, cotton rope, grommets. (excluding rope) 30 X 20 cm 0.1 & 0.4 Aesthetically plays upon the danger of deoxygenated blood described as ‘blue blood’.

Medium:

Wood, ceramic tile, dyed cotton rope, cellophane bag, resin, grommets, nails.

contemporary-art fluidity installation object painting sculpture

FLOW MATTERS solo: The Briggait Glasgow

'It Keeps Catching My Eye' series was born from harnessing my distraction with ADHD within our fast paced digital world whilst involving my own nostalgia in response to The Briggait in Glasgow, which was once the city's fish market.

Photo credits: Alexander Hoyles