Infinite Play . Over Spray . I just want to lie down everyday . UltraSuperNew Gallery . Singapore . 2022

Materials left behind . Spray paint, acrylic paint . plywood . push pins, shoelaces . plastic chains . paper . masking tape . silicon bands . floaties

21st April 2022

A downpour has just cleared way for the sun to penetrate through the gallery’s floor-to-ceiling windows. As soph O installs her solo presentation @ultrasupernewsg , our Tyrwhitt neighbours’ prying eyes peer curiously through the glass, giving company to the infiltrating sun rays.

All shades of the rainbow are visible today, in no formal order. Colours bounce from wall to wood, an invitation to enter imaginary portals.

Each unique painting in the space is connected to another - works on paper we’re once base sheets for spray painting wood, and wibbley-wobbly offcuts fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Even remnants of masking tape that were used to separate lines have made their way into this showcase of “Infinite play, overspray, i just want to lie down everyday”.

For soph O, assemblage is the “most fun” part of the process. This is a physicalisation of the artist’s world from 22 April - 13 May 2022, where over 100 new works have emerged from materials that were left behind. The exhibition explores reconstruction & renewal as a necessary form of growth. It chronicles the importance of sacred time and space set aside for playing endlessly.

Some of the works we encounter today are once labeled distractions, stealing time away from client commissions.

Conversations with soph are a reminder that creative exploration has heavy likeness to open-end play. Her weaves composed with soft materials like rubber bands and shoelaces offer alternative ways to pass time. Oh wait, aren’t these the games we used to play as kids?

An artist with over a decade of experience, soph O practices how paint can create shifts and movements, revealing either mundane or extraordinary emotions. She currently works on walls, paper, wood, and their resulting oversprays, distortions and fragments.

Words by Tulika Anuja @tu__lika Mama Magnet