In ancient texts, Sophia is the personification of wisdom and mother of the universe who transmutes ignorance into fire. Built into a hillside in Bavaria, "Sophia" rises from the earth but seems to be born of air. She gazes up entreatingly with pleading hands raised toward the skies, as she attempts to connect matter and spirit. Being of the two but not one or the other, there is a restless melancholy. Regardless, she always looks up. She always seeks the truth. She always desires to rise.
In the spring of 2015, I worked with the Bavarian International School to develop a sculpture workshop that would cover the entirety of the design process, from initial concept to final installation. I worked with over 30 students exploring image-design and refinement, metal shaping, welding, and grinding, and over the course of two weeks, we worked side by side to create "Sophia."
These sculptures are not the angels of religious history. Instead, these figures belong to a universe where struggle and suffering are the predominant elements, and they speak to the enigma of finding heart in such a universe.
In 2014, while swimming in the Red Sea with a small scratch on my foot, I contracted a vicious infection that left me recuperating for nearly three months. During this time, as I watched my body progressively deteriorate, my mind continually returned to the images of Paul Klee’s angels, which I had seen the winter before. These simply drawn winged figures did not represent spiritual perfection or even beautiful forms, but were flawed, vulnerable, and very much human. Instead of sanctity, they insist on contradiction and duality as the most persistent truth. To grow and to rot, to rejoice and mourn, to sin and to save, and not one without the other. Propping myself up, I began drawing my own angels.
I was not interested in the angels of history. I was focused on creating figures of struggle, ambiguity, and antithesis. These angels do not reside in Heaven or on Earth but are caught between the two. Made of steel lines drawn through space, they gather up air and light to create their forms – forms that are fragile and barely exist at all. When it is dark, they are dark, being made of dark. When it is light, they are light, being made of light. They are only outlines, and their substance is air, but their fleeting presence is certain nonetheless. With these angels, I attempted to make totems of mercy and empathy, dedicated to the nobility we can find during our short time in life.
