Image: South London Gallery
In the firemen’s living quarters, painted-steel works suggest crumpled paper and peeling walls, harking back to the dilapidated state of the building before it was converted. Spanning the Main Gallery and two floors of the Fire Station, the solo exhibition brings together monumental sculptures made from steel, concrete and other industrial materials associated with modernist architecture.
Sosnowska is a Polish artist whose sculptural practice explores architecture and urban transformation. Her work reflects on the implosion of the communist regime in Poland and the legacy of modernism, with a particular focus on the impact that architecture and space have on people.
Although she is best known for creating large-scale pieces using industrial materials, Sosnowska develops her ideas through intricate paper models. Rarely seen outside the studio, these small-scale maquettes are being shown for the first time in London as part of ‘Weight of Matter’. “Architecture serves to organise and give order,” Sosnowska says; “my works are about introducing chaos and uncertainty. They make reality cease to be obvious.”
Natalia Sielewicz and architect Tom Emerson are scheduled to join the South London Gallery’s Director, Margot Heller, in conversation at Camberwell College of Arts, focusing on Sosnowska’s current exhibition and her wider artistic practice.
