Sofiia Yesakova (UA)
Sofiia Yesakova (b. 1998) lives and works in Berlin. She is currently a participant in the Berlin postgraduate Program “Goldrausch Künstlerinnen”. Sofiia is also a member of Frontviews at HAUNT Berlin. Central to her artistic practice is the research into the increasing role of information in regulating human behaviour, total control, as well as the rapid adaptation to any situation and the reduction of everything to statistics. A search for truth in a stream of interference. As an alternative form of artistic narrative, Sofiia uses an inanimate language - she utilises diagrams and an engineer-like, schematic type of drawing. Bureaucratically consistent, dry and lifeless. She uses the language of minimalism, but also focuses on the expression of thoughts and emotions, reflecting, and conveying the atmospheres, that is, what minimalism has tried to deny and possibly suppress.
For Sofiia, the balance between emotionality and rationality is important (a line of thought that favours the mind over the senses and turns away from a sensory reality ). Her main materials are currently gesso, wood and many layers of gelatine The works are created using various techniques such as wood carving, icon painting, multi-layered approaches, blueprint-like drawings and installations that are specially designed for specific spaces, with the respective architecture playing a special role.
The contradictory feelings created by the contrast between the elegance of refined forms and the oppressive context of the wooden planks contribute significantly to the understanding of her works. The element of absence arises from the conscious rejection of easily legible figurative images and objects.
Many of the works with drawings are reminiscent of frescoes in a temple, parts of the wall of which seemed to have been moved into the gallery space. In addition, there is a further reference to the religious theme: an important contextual basis of her work is the iconology Sofiia uses to communicate with the viewer, as well as the multi-layered complexity of our history and symbolism.
Partner: IZOLYATSIA, Kyiv, Ukraine
Photo (c) the artist
