Sophie Popper - STUDIO DAYS IN LONDON

A DAY WITH TACITURNLI®

 

Sophie Popper Q&A for Taciturnli

T: Winter is coming to London do you think it will affect your creative process in any way?

S: God yes, I hate being cold with every fibre of my being and my studio doesn’t have any heating so I go to the studio a lot less in the Winter. As you might imagine, work takes a lot longer to make, or I have to adapt it so I can make it from the comfort of my home. With the nights drawing in earlier it isn’t much fun being at the studio in the dark either (did I mention I hate being cold!?). I also try to view rest in the winter as a restorative practice, there’s something nice to me about productivity ebbing and flowing in alignment with the seasons. 

T: What project have you been working on recently? Could you share a bit about it with us?

S: I’m really interested in imagination as a transformative tool, particularly in relation to young people and children. I’ve been gathering source material and recently discovered schoolbooks that my brother and I kept when we were in primary school. The books were for practicing writing and contain little stories and illustration on what we did on the weekend. Many of these stories are entirely made up and have very bizarre drawings. In one, I’ve drawn a wolf in a maid’s costume pushing a baby wolf in a pram. It’s very unclear how this related to my weekend back in 2004. I’ve been slowly recreating some of these drawings using mosaic and lino printing, thinking about storytelling, time, value, skill, education systems, school aesthetics and of course, how we use our imagination as a tool to explore the world around us. 

T: Your work often includes humour and a sense of ‘clumsiness’. Has anything from everyday life recently inspired you to turn it into a piece?

S: Yes, almost all of my work is about taking everyday things that happen in life and reimagining them to make them “bigger”, whether that’s turning the act of making a sandwich into a choreographed performance with dancers and costumes, or making a kitchen into an installation that sings. The clumsy- or “wonky” aesthetic as I like to call it- comes from my dyspraxia. I don’t think I’ve every been able to make something that isn’t wonky! But I try to lean into this in my work.

T: Is there an artist who has had a big influence on you?

S: When I was 17, I discovered Riitta Ikonen, a Finnish artist working across performance, wearable sculptures, participatory performances and- the reason I originally found her work- mail art. Inspired by postcards she made from found materials, I decided to start sending my own and conveniently discovering the sole of a shoe abandoned on the roadside on holiday, I loaded it with stamps and mailed it to my friend back in England. It turns out that receiving the sole of a shoe in the post is not as fun as I thought it would be and there was a very confused half an hour when my friend’s mum thought one of her daughters had been kidnapped and held for ransom, which as you might imagine, promptly put a stop to my mail art undertakings. Since then, I’ve found another of Riitta’s projects, Eyes as Big as Plates with Karoline Hjorth, endlessly inspiring. I would highly recommend looking it up. It’s a beautiful photo series capturing people dressed in wearable sculptures that reflect the environment around them, each portrait a dialogue between the subject/collaborator and the location they’re in. The artists also collaborate with various educational youth-focused organisations and schools, which I love.

T: Was there a recent moment when you thought, “I’m really lucky to be doing this work”?

S: Not really! I just make the work that I want to make which is within my skillset, resource and budget and hope for the best. Many of my ideas remain unrealised, but I try and make what I can.

T: What’s your favourite flower?

S: Nasturtiums, I love the way the leaves look, I love the orange flowers, and I love that you can put them in salads. A triple threat plant in my opinion!

T: What’s your favourite park in London?

S: Hampstead heath but specifically when you leave the path and go off piste into the trees. It always feels like you could be in a woodland in the countryside for about 5 minutes until someone else comes crashing through the bushes behind you.

T: You travelled to Japan this year. Can you tell us a bit about that experience?

S:  I went with my mum and her friend Tracey. We did an incredibly quick whistle-stop tour in two weeks, and I would love to go back. My favourite place we visited was Nagoro near the Iya Valley, also known as the Scarecrow Village. As the name suggests, Nagoro is a village filled to the brim with scarecrows, each arranged in different village-related tableaus including groups waiting for the bus, ploughing the fields and fishing in the river. The work is by Tsukimi Ayano who made one scarecrow to protect her field and then continued to make more when she realised the other villagers liked to stop and greet her scarecrow in the mornings. Since then, the project has expanded to take over the entire village. 

T: How does Taciturnli feel to wear?

S: My outfit felt lovely- very well made and constructed. Words that come to mind are soft, strong, sturdy, warm, cosy, comfy, calm and extremely chic.

Coat: MARS DOWN COAT  

Shirt: ORIGINAL STRIPE BUTCHER SHIRT L

Pants:  CORD PICARD PANTS