SOPHIE WHITE : MAGIC OBJECTS
APRIL 21 - MAY 8 2011

Pop artists of the 60's found their subjects in mass produced everyday items, and in representations of these items in advertising. Their style is cool, impersonal, and generalized. A hamburger represents every hamburger, a coke represents every coke.

Sophie White, an artist and musician based in Philadelphia, is showcasing a body of paper mache sculptures of everyday objects, painted to look like the objects they represent. Although White's work is Pop in approach, her style is warm and personal. The paper mache is deliberately handmade and imperfect, and approximate only the scale of the intimate objects represented. There is a disconnect between what is represented and what we know about the original object. They are comically lumpy and crude caricatures of the smooth manufactured objects they represent. A cellphone has such thick texture that it looks like it was thrown into a fire. A Ramones CD looks like it has melted and warped to such a degree it would be impossible to cram inside a player. Rather than detract from the work the intimate scale, recognizable subject matter, and awkward craftsmanship give them an endearing, approachable first impression.

White's outwardly messy objects are painted with exacting detail. The fonts on the same Ramones CD are meticulously painted on with care that seems counter intuitive to the distorted surface it is painted on. The reverse side of the CD reveals another detailed, colorful abstraction of the light patterns reflecting off the malformed disc. A sculpture of a wallet has her name and address painted on her license so clearly you can read the address and discover she only has her learner's permit.

The sculptures are given paint and color with the same affection and care that the objects they are inspired by receive. Her subjects may be contemporary mass produced objects like a cassette tape, a lighter, a wallet, or a pocket mirror, but these objects aren't anonymous, they are hers. The cassette tape is a mix tape with handwritten labels, the lighter has a lion sticker attached to the side, the person looking out of the pocket mirror at you is her. These objects are self portraits more than they are depictions of mass produced things, and that is what separates her from the classic Pop artists.