Stitch In Time Sonia Gomes

Mendes Wood is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Brazilian artist Sonia Gomes' new sculptures in cloth and wire. Gathered along the walls and hung from ceiling to floor, the eclectic fabric contortions evoke simultaneously the idea of viscera and the sacred object, mixing expressions of love, domesticity and totemic terror.

Weaving together fabrics both found and gifted, Gomes follows the fault lines of affect or memory – this child’s blanket, that woman’s dress, a table cloth – making and revealing arrangements intuitively. In their sheer candor, her sculptures become impressively expressionistic; seemingly free to do what they like. Her work reflects Renaissance artist Michelangelo’s belief that sculpture was a process of revelation, of rendering explicit the inner life of objects. He was known to have said,

“Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.” 

Skin is important within the body of Gomes’ work. The organ of sensuous contact with the world, it at once defines and limits experience. Cloth is a second skin, and a sense of personal history permeates her fabric sculptures. A believer in the élan vitale, she trusts that every material is magnetized with the latency of life.