SOPHIE SACHS & HAYLEY A. WEST

HALF FULL / LONG PAST

22 June – 3 July 2022

Catalogue & Price List: View PDF Catalogue (3mb)

‘HALF FULL / LONG PAST’ VIEWING ROOM

A Pas De Deux is a ‘step of two’ exhibition that has become a signature of Saint Cloche Gallery. Curator and Founder, Kitty Clark delights in pairing the works of two artists of varied mediums to create in tandem, works that are avant-garde and innovative. This time, we reveal HALF FULL / LONG PAST, the long-distance iterations of the everyday experience by Hayley A. West and Sophie Sachs.

Sophie Sachs’s paintings aim to capture the beauty and intricacy of everyday objects and experiences. Glass, water, and the morning light are recurring elements in her still life scenes.

Hayley A. West’s ceramic collections give expression to the dialogue between the subconscious and the outward gestures in the practice of daily life in a search for meaning and purposefulness.

Sophie and Hayley were the two lucky Little Things Art Prize Finalists 2021 selected by Kitty Clark to exhibit at the gallery together this year. As part of the Pas De Deux, Kitty Clark has urged the idea further and instigated a special collaborative series for this show; vessels formed by Hayley, were sent to Sophie in Brisbane, to paint on and send back to Hayley in Sydney to complete by firing in her kiln.

ABOUT SOPHIE SACHS

After completing her Masters of Architecture at the University of Queensland, Sophie worked as a lead designer with Urban Art Projects in public art for 5 years. She now works as a full- time artist in her home studio in Brisbane.

Her work aims to capture the beauty and intricacy of everyday objects and experiences. Influenced by her mother and aunts’ fabric and interiors shop, Sophie is intrigued by beautiful colours and patterns which play an important role in her compositions.

While technical precision is an important element in her works, Sophie manages to keep a simple sophistication in all her paintings. The works always feel accessible, with a sense of joy and nostalgia. Sophie’s works reflect her personality, with each having an effortless and timeless ease. Her work brings a sense of happiness through their soft beauty.

“Half Full is about capturing the uplifting feeling of basking in the morning sun.

The subject matter of my works is quite ordinary, such as a glass of water on a striped shirt, or a bedside table with old coffee cups, but the most important feature is always the direct natural light that washes over them.

I am interested in how the lighting can transform an otherwise plain object. Particularly glass objects which literally glow and refract light in unexpected ways and the deep exaggerated shadows that are created.

As natural lighting is so fluid and ever-changing, my works become about capturing an exact moment in time.
I aim to highlight and examine details that may normally go unnoticed.”

– Sophie Sachs

 

 

ABOUT HAYLEY A. WEST

Hayley is an artist, designer and educator who grew up in Orange on Wiradjuri land and is currently living and working on Gadigal land in Newtown, Sydney. She has a BA Fine Arts from UNSW Art & Design (then COFA). Upon completion of this degree, Hayley spent time working and travelling overseas before returning to Sydney to undertake a BA Interior and Spatial Design at UTS, graduating with first-class honours.

From 2014 to 2020 she worked as a ceramic’s technician and tutor at Pine Street Creative Arts Centre (City of Sydney) – overseeing the technical running of the studio and teaching the adult and children’s workshops. During this time Hayley assisted on several glaze technology workshops with Anthony Brink, slip-casting and printing on Ceramics. In 2018 Hayley worked as a tutor at Makerspace & Co in Marrickville teaching Introductory workshops under the guidance of Xavier Modoux and assisting on several Master throwing and glaze technology workshops with Anthony Brink.

Presently, Hayley works as a ceramic technician at Hazelhurst Art Centre, runs artist – educator workshops from several locations including her home studio – Wells Street Studio. Whilst also developing work for exhibition and domestic ware for sale.

“In my work as an artist, I draw on wide-ranging interests, in botany, geology, anthropology and the history of art, as well as from my background in design. Against this conceptual framework, I sift through my internal landscape and the substrate of the sub-conscious, seeking to understand myself and my place in the world through the materiality of ceramics. To me there is both whimsy and gravitas to be discovered in this relationship.

The work presented is forged from a palette of earth, oxides, and chemical elements to create something permanent, and yet easily fragmented. In the collection of objects there exists a tension between the outward familiarity of their forms and their self-secluded centres. Might they stand as future artefacts imbued with absurd moments of melancholy and humour. We too are vessels from which multiple voices – the antecedents of possible selves – take form.”

– Hayley A. West