Hermione Allsopp makes sculptural work by collecting objects and fabric and re-creating them into new forms or compositions. These are familiar, known, domestic items that have been discarded in charity or junk shops – not, inert materials, but ones that carry collective attachments, memories and meanings. As sculpture, these re-done, or un-done-up objects begin to exist as something else and raise questions about the value and material nature of everyday objects. She also reflect on wider topics related to consumerism and psychological and physical interiors and exteriors. She had realized sculptures that were shown in Casa de Memoria with old clothes.
ARTWORK
ORGANIC MATTERS, 2018
Cement and fabrics installation
Hermione Allsopp explores the boundary between repulsion and attraction, creating sculptural artworks with common objects for domestic use and waste materials to reflect on themes linked to consumerism and the relationship between interior and exterior. The artist’s project, developed in Guimarães with Ideias Emergentes, was inspired by the encounter with a community of washerwomen in the public cisterns of Trás-de-Gaia (Portugal) and a study of this centuries-old tradition of washing in public baths, which is now slowly disappearing. Examining the materiality of the washed clothes, the working process, and the rhythms of the washerwomen’s daily lives, the artist decided to transform clothing and fabrics into actual spherical sculptures made with water and cement. For the exhibition Allsopp has re-created the spheric sculptures, evoking the repetition of daily actions that generally characterizes the portuguese cisterns, as well as the cyclical repetition of everyday routine of the washerwomen.
