Fantasy on a Street Corner

digital art on fine paper

cm 40 x 40

Artist Statement

Sophie Hoath is a digital artist and writer living and working in London. Her work examines societal narratives through a critical lens, requiring active participation from her viewer as she confronts them with a challenge to the way they’ve been conditioned to perceive the world around them.

In her internationally exhibited triptych, ‘Selfie-Obsessed’, she self-consciously mocks her need to perceive and be perceived through a hyper-edited, ‘Instagrammable’ lens. Using the self-portrait medium, she holds up the artist’s impulse to beautify as a mirror to social media and tabloid culture, dissecting the roots of our very 21st century desire to be perceived as curated versions of ourselves. And yes, her ‘best’ selfie did get 314 likes on Instagram once (@sophiehoath – you can check).

In ‘Do As I Say, Not As I Do’, a quadriptych combining digital art and text, she pokes fun at the elitism of the art world, trialling ways of connecting with her viewer that are capable of undermining the lofty pretentions associated with Art Proper. There is no velvet rope between the viewer and the work; no expectation placed upon them to perceive from afar. ‘Touch It’ and ‘Grab It’ are among the demands she issues, daring her onlooker to engage with her work as a real-world impulse, not a detached object to be admired from a distance.