Claudia Sohrens

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

I think about and through the practices of collecting, and turning archives into form. My practice is multidisciplinary and rooted in a discourse on photography and photographic representation. I think of and through the practices of collecting and turning archives into form. My work unfolds through a range of media – research, photography, text, collage, printmaking, books, video, and installation. I examine the philosophical conflicts in our encounters with images, objects, and information, questioning the mechanics of representation within personal and cultural economies of knowledge. I find inspiration in the interactions and energies between people and the strong emotions they stir up. My curiosity follows diverse temporalities, blurs the boundaries between past, present, and future. My curiosity draws me to the detritus of the archive, mystery boxes, misfiled items, traces of fingerprints and coffee stains, handwritten notes, tears, repairs, and archival bleeds. Through interdisciplinary research, material-based experimentation, and critical inquiry, I uncover accidental juxtapositions, overlaps, and gaps, evidence of absence and erasure, exploring how meaning emerges as much from what is lost or overlooked as from what is preserved.

Artwork