Sophie Alston is an artist and educator who lives and works in London. She graduated from MA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2015. She works on solo and community projects.
Artist Statement
My recent works consist of modernist, cross-stitched wall hangings and wooden plank and cross-stitched structural installations. In my practice I utilise an appropriation of signifiers from 20thC avant-garde modernism - De Stijl and Bauhaus design - and reconfigure them by using materials and techniques mostly associated with amateur craftspeople and executed in a purposefully unskilled way.
My practice centres around the notion that historically craft has been associated with women and the domestic environment and therefore outside of any serious aesthetic or philosophical debate within 'serious' (male) art. By appropriating the visual language of avante-garde modernism, and combining it with materials and skills associated with craft, I seek to undermine the historical binary male/female opposition that produces a hierarchy of values that privileges Fine Art over Craft.
The feminist nature of my work is in some way inspired by the feminist artist Judy Chicago who also focused on contrasting the use of traditional women’s skills such as needlework with traditionally male work such as welding.
The recurring theme of triangles in my work is in part influenced by the work of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party where the triangle tiles and placing of the whole installation in a triangle is a reference to the female form and specifically the vagina. Though I don’t want this female symbolism to be obvious in my work, I want the feminine to be an important element.
The De Stijl and Bauhaus movements have had a big influence on my work but specifically Mondrian’s use of shape and limited colour palette. I mostly use a limited palette which is used across both the structural and wool elements of the work. I like to refer to David Batchelor’s view in Chromophobia that colour is generally considered ‘other’, e.g. feminine or queer meaning that it is often dismissed as secondary and merely cosmetic. In my work it is very much the forefront of what I do.
I am also influenced by the works of Sonia Delaunay and Sophie Taueber-Arp who both focused on the materiality of their work and used fabrics, needles and threads to distinguish themselves from the work of their male contemporaries. Rosemarie Trokel’s knitted paintings draw attention to this materiality in her work. What these women artists did, and what I feel I am doing is corrupt the purity of the modernist genre by using real world, (and traditionally feminine) materials and therefore bringing the real world into the work.
Before bringing together all of my skills into my art practice I worked as an adult education teacher, alongside running a fashion accessories business, using traditional craft skills such as leather work. As well as having studied these processes I also learnt these skills alongside crochet, from my mother who was a knitwear designer, and passed down through her father who was a leather merchant. I see this learning of traditional craft skills as an important aspect of my work.
Education
MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, 2015
PGCE, Institute of Education, University of London, 2011
Diploma in Fashion Accessories, Cordwainers at London College of Fashion, 2007
BA Philosophy, University of Southampton, 2004
Teaching
Community art, craft and textiles tutor WAES and Morley College
International experience
Gave an artist talk in Toronto
Assisted in running MA workshops at the Bauhaus in Berlin and in Kiev
Assisted running BA and MA presentations in Kiev, Berlin, and Dubai
Projects and residency
St Peter De Beauvoir Town artist in residence - March-April 2019
Solace Project
Awarded a grant by the RC Sherriff Trust
Projects run at Princess Alice Hospice & Hospice of St Francis
Worked with a small group of artists to establish a project to co-produce an artwork with patients and the bereaved
Solace Project was funded by an auction held at London College of Fashion, May 2018 - including new and established fine artists' work
Selected group shows
Solace Project, Window Galleries, Central Saint Martins, January 2019
Solace Project, Princess Alice Hospice, September 2018
Nothing Endures But Change with The London Group, June 2018
We Are Always Several at Once, Safehouse 1, Peckham, March 2016
Granfalloon, Degree Show One, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins June, 2015
Post Graduate Auction, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, November 2014
Tomorrow: Today, Bargehouse London, March 2014
Awards and Selections
Shortlisted for the Clifford Chance Sculpture Award 2015
Selected for Made in Arts London, Autumn Collection, 2016
Artist Statement
My recent works consist of modernist, cross-stitched wall hangings and wooden plank and cross-stitched structural installations. In my practice I utilise an appropriation of signifiers from 20thC avant-garde modernism - De Stijl and Bauhaus design - and reconfigure them by using materials and techniques mostly associated with amateur craftspeople and executed in a purposefully unskilled way.
My practice centres around the notion that historically craft has been associated with women and the domestic environment and therefore outside of any serious aesthetic or philosophical debate within 'serious' (male) art. By appropriating the visual language of avante-garde modernism, and combining it with materials and skills associated with craft, I seek to undermine the historical binary male/female opposition that produces a hierarchy of values that privileges Fine Art over Craft.
The feminist nature of my work is in some way inspired by the feminist artist Judy Chicago who also focused on contrasting the use of traditional women’s skills such as needlework with traditionally male work such as welding.
The recurring theme of triangles in my work is in part influenced by the work of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party where the triangle tiles and placing of the whole installation in a triangle is a reference to the female form and specifically the vagina. Though I don’t want this female symbolism to be obvious in my work, I want the feminine to be an important element.
The De Stijl and Bauhaus movements have had a big influence on my work but specifically Mondrian’s use of shape and limited colour palette. I mostly use a limited palette which is used across both the structural and wool elements of the work. I like to refer to David Batchelor’s view in Chromophobia that colour is generally considered ‘other’, e.g. feminine or queer meaning that it is often dismissed as secondary and merely cosmetic. In my work it is very much the forefront of what I do.
I am also influenced by the works of Sonia Delaunay and Sophie Taueber-Arp who both focused on the materiality of their work and used fabrics, needles and threads to distinguish themselves from the work of their male contemporaries. Rosemarie Trokel’s knitted paintings draw attention to this materiality in her work. What these women artists did, and what I feel I am doing is corrupt the purity of the modernist genre by using real world, (and traditionally feminine) materials and therefore bringing the real world into the work.
Before bringing together all of my skills into my art practice I worked as an adult education teacher, alongside running a fashion accessories business, using traditional craft skills such as leather work. As well as having studied these processes I also learnt these skills alongside crochet, from my mother who was a knitwear designer, and passed down through her father who was a leather merchant. I see this learning of traditional craft skills as an important aspect of my work.
Education
MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, 2015
PGCE, Institute of Education, University of London, 2011
Diploma in Fashion Accessories, Cordwainers at London College of Fashion, 2007
BA Philosophy, University of Southampton, 2004
Teaching
Community art, craft and textiles tutor WAES and Morley College
International experience
Gave an artist talk in Toronto
Assisted in running MA workshops at the Bauhaus in Berlin and in Kiev
Assisted running BA and MA presentations in Kiev, Berlin, and Dubai
Projects and residency
St Peter De Beauvoir Town artist in residence - March-April 2019
Solace Project
Awarded a grant by the RC Sherriff Trust
Projects run at Princess Alice Hospice & Hospice of St Francis
Worked with a small group of artists to establish a project to co-produce an artwork with patients and the bereaved
Solace Project was funded by an auction held at London College of Fashion, May 2018 - including new and established fine artists' work
Selected group shows
Solace Project, Window Galleries, Central Saint Martins, January 2019
Solace Project, Princess Alice Hospice, September 2018
Nothing Endures But Change with The London Group, June 2018
We Are Always Several at Once, Safehouse 1, Peckham, March 2016
Granfalloon, Degree Show One, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins June, 2015
Post Graduate Auction, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, November 2014
Tomorrow: Today, Bargehouse London, March 2014
Awards and Selections
Shortlisted for the Clifford Chance Sculpture Award 2015
Selected for Made in Arts London, Autumn Collection, 2016
