Sebastian Sochan Profile

About the Artist 

Sebastian Sochan graduated from Goldsmiths, where he studied Fine Art. Instinct for materials and emotional responses play a crucial role in how his work comes together. This type of intuition is a catalyst for him to always respond and react to surroundings and emotions. His work takes grace in its vulnerability to the world, which leads to uncertainty in whether the work is a sculpture, painting, drawing, object, textile, installation or an exploration of space.

“Poetics of humbleness and fragility is at the heart of my work. The work thrives on being “unmonumental” and longing and romanticising about the unknown. I think a lot about beauty, the idea of the “body”. Making the work fragile and exposing the trace of the hand allows intimacy and closeness to form between my work and the viewer. It makes us more aware of our own bodies in relation to the work and also the “body” of the work itself: the materials used, processes, forms and decision-making.

Utilising and playing on what is familiar is an intuitive gesture for me. My work references fashion, set design, interiors and the everyday. Something that is central to these fields is the idea of taste. Can something nice and potentially sweet become bittersweet through imagination, association and material exploration? The excessive use of sugar, form, colour and textile techniques is a way for me to question our relationship to the world of aesthetics and objects. Sugar, especially, is a material that bares a lot of negative as well as positive attributes. It allows me to make observations about our everyday relationships with our surroundings, materials and ourselves – something that is intrinsic and primitive in our behaviour.

In the process of making, I let each stage be a suggestion, allowing the materials to have some power and create a symbiotic relationship with emotions. The work has the ability to be gestural and accidental, uncertain and comforting, longing for something desirable and imaginary.”