Roman Lovers

Sophie Whettnall

Sophie Whettnall - Roman Lovers, commission work in progress, 2024, courtesy of the artist

A tribute to nature, Roman Lovers is a large-scale installation of eleven hanging silks with hand-painted forest canopies. The work originated during a residency in Rome. Confronted with a forest of ancient trees, the artist experienced a feverish vertigo; an overwhelming sense of awe imbued by nature’s strength and beauty, combined with an intense and direct understanding of the limits of one’s own existence vis-à-vis the limitlessness of nature’s timescale. The work thus bears witness to a deep concern about the relation between man and nature, in which time and gesture are essential factors. Through a ritualised mastery of a limited amount of materials - red ink on silk; elements infused with affective energy throughout history - the work becomes highly sensorial, even sensuous. Guiding our gaze up- and downwards, it brings the energy back to our bodies in space, experiencing - perhaps - a similar sense of vertigo. Roman Lovers presents a world that is both infinite and intimate, transporting us to places both near and far. It is a space for reverie and contemplation.

2023 - red chinese ink on 11 suspended silks, various dimensions, fans/wind
Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein Gallery.
Commissioned by STUK, House for Dance, Image & Sound in the context of At the still point of the turning world (2024).

Sophie Whettnall
°1973, Belgium

Sophie Whettnall is a visual artist working across video, performance, drawing and installation. Her practice is greatly influenced by painting, landscape in particular, and its durational sensorial experience. Her main material is light and its elusive, disorienting and seductive effects. With it she teases our sense of sight and questions the idea that seeing equals understanding. In 1999 Whettnall won the Young Belgian Painting prize (currently Belgian Art Price). Her works have been exhibited at a.o. Centrale for Contemporary Art Brussel (BE), Michel Rein Paris and Brussels (FR - BE), Museum Roger Raveel (BE), BOZAR - Paleis voor Schone Kunsten Brussel (BE), Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães (BR), Galleria Continua (IT – FR), Fundació Joan Miró (ES), Utah Museum of Fine Arts (US), MAC Grand Hornu (BE) and the 52nd Venice Biennale (IT). Sophie Whettnall is represented by Gallery Michel Rein. She lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.