BACCHANALIA
Sophie Dickens’ solo exhibition at WiMu – International Wine Museum of Barolo
from September 10 to October 2, 2022
exhibition curator: Gio’Gatto – KJS Gallery
A perfect match between Sophie Dickens’s works and the venue that will host them, with the exhibition’s theme being the celebrations in honor of the god of wine, Bacchus.
The artist’s works are created from humble materials destined to become waste. Sophie Dickens, in fact, starts with old, discarded oak barrels, using metal and wood to create, where wine was once aged, upcycled artworks that celebrate this precious beverage.
There could therefore be no better place to host this art exhibition than the WiMu, the International Wine Museum, at the Castle of the Marchesi Falletti of Barolo.
It all began with an intuition by the artist, who, in an old farmhouse from the early 19th century in the Ligurian hinterland, discovered bottles, glass demijohns, and gigantic oak barrels. All this disused material inspired Sophie to create her solo exhibition “Bacchanalia.” “The Dancer of Bacchus” is the first sculpture in this series, created by Sophie using the wooden staves and iron ribs of those barrels built to store wine.
Sophie Dickens has always worked with iron and wood for her works, cutting, welding, and overlapping them until these two materials become animated works.
On this occasion, wine, and the archaic forms that contain it, both physically and philosophically, become the common thread that creates a direct connection from myth to the earth, or better yet, to the territory, transforming itself into a dynamic energy that pervades both the world of animals, plastically captured in their vital impulses, and that of humans, immortalized in endless ecstatic dances.
Artist – Sophie Dickens
Sophie Dickens She is an internationally renowned British sculptor whose works are scattered throughout the world (The Card on ARTSY).
Her classically trained drawing skills and profound understanding of form, further enhanced by her degree from the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art in London, allow her to create works that move in every sense; whether a quick sketch or a monumental sculpture, her work is full of dynamism.
Through meticulous anatomical studies, Sophie builds armatures, welding iron bars like skeletal drawings onto which she begins to attach specially cut pieces of wood, recovered from old disused floors, from oak or chestnut roof beams.
Using fluid dynamics to understand the nature of convex and concave shapes, she creates muscular movements similar to the classic studies of Eadweard Muybridge that closely influenced her, resulting in a coherent kinematic sensation of bones, muscles, and tendons.
Using a strong natural talent, he breathes life and character into his work, creating monumental sculptures full of passion and vitality, in which the internal mechanisms of the body and mind explode through the skin and form its outer shell.
Sophie Dickens’s creations and sculptures reflect a modern primitivism, often featuring elongated arms and legs that animate creatures full of strength and movement. Her favorite subjects revolve primarily around nature, animals, mythology, the elements, and humanity. They are imbued with poetry, with lyrical forms and emotive poses. It goes without saying that the British artist has fully inherited her family’s ability to evoke the senses, just as her great-great-grandfather Charles Dickens was supremely capable: Sophie Dickens can communicate with anyone without the need for words.
