How Artist Sofia Lai Uses Fashion To Sculpt Intimacy

This weekend, SHOWstudio is being taken over thanks to a young but promising artist Sofia Lai. Don't worry, we're not going anywhere but for for an three entire days - the length of London Gallery Weekend - we've invited Lai to take up space as an artist-in-residence in our Belgravia-based gallery so she can carve her signature fashion sculptures into reality.

Existing in the liminal space between fashion and art, Lai's work is interesting because it belongs to neither. As a stylist, there is deep-rooted fashion element to the artist's sculptures, mirrored to the rest of the world via each sculpture's unique pose and clothing. As for where art is concerned, it's everywhere - even in the way Lai keeps coming back to her own body to cast her sculptures on. We can't quite promise what Lai's end result will be from her LiveStudio residency with us but we can tell you that she's curated a selection of fashion illustrations from the SHOWstudio archive to take direct reference from so we're in for as much of a treat as you are. What we do know is the sculptures created will eventually form our summer exhibition Interdependence, opening to the public 6 June as well as the set for our S/S 25 panel discussions to take place.

Keen to get to know Lai and her artist outlook, we caught up with the fashion sculptor a couple of days before she joined us at SHOWstudio. Here is what she said.

Christina Donoghue: Hi Sofia, can you introduce yourself and talk a bit about your practice? 

Sofia Lai: Hi! yes, so i'm an Italian stylist and visual artist based in London and i'm interested in exploring the boundaries of bodies and memories in my art practice. To do so, I use a variety of media, such as painting and sculpture, all of which are connected by a haptic connection to matter, whether it be plaster, textile, leather or oil. I consider my works to be the result of introspective impulses, but their physicality makes intimacy palpable and permeable and so in order to find the truths of my subjects, I mould limbs and dig in the flesh of my creations to expose the uncanny. It's important my work as a fashion stylist centres on the body and so for me, 'fashion styling' is a process of ‘building identities through textile matter’, which is a description that equally suits my artistic practice.

CD: Interesting. So if you were to describe the sculptures you make in just three words, which ones would you choose?

SL: Uncanny, Dynamic and Tenderness

CD: It's quite clear to me that your work sits in the liminal space between fashion styling and sculpture, refusing to submit to one or the other entirely. What is it you find exciting about working in this space? 

SL: I definitely agree, I believe my work could not exist without both worlds. The main reason is that eventually as creatives, we try to approach the surroundings through different environments and tools that we are aware of, in order to find the connection with others. Fashion and art are just the medium through which I recognise myself. By using both mediums as tools, I can express my identity in a way that is different from anyone else and for me, this is the most exciting aspect of it, being able to represent my identity through my works and represent a reflection of who I am as a person. It's a way of expressing my innermost feelings and thoughts, and a way of connecting with others. It's a way of finding belonging in the world by making something that reflects my beliefs and values, and I can make something that speaks to those who are also outsiders and are looking for a way to relate to the world.

CD: So, considering you use both fashion and art for the same reason of self expression... do you think fashion can be art? 

SL: This is a tough one. I would say yes, depending on which perspective you are looking at and approaching both worlds. For me Fashion and art are tools that allow me to express and portray a clear concept and when considering this, eventually, these two distinctive worlds become one's own. For this reason I would say that fashion can be art when allowing the creative to express and send a message across to your viewer and public and create a connection with them. When you consider fashion and art as part of the same creative sphere, It makes sense that they go hand in hand, particularly when you are trying to create a connection with your viewer. Take a garment, for example. It's a piece. of fabric but also, in a way, is a representation of someone's soul. It's an object that allowed that person to express the emotions they were experiencing and try somehow to translate them into something concrete into something that people would understand and see, and as a consequence, understand them. 

CD: Ok, so what are the fundamental differences between fashion and art? 

SL: For the way I look at fashion and art it is difficult to find such differences between the two. One that comes to my mind is the utility aspect of fashion which, of course, is not reliable to the art world. But then again, if you consider today's society I think the idea of buying clothes just with the purpose of covering up disappears when we have a wardrobe full of garments suitable for different occasions. Fashion is called fashion for a reason - the ulterior purpose of self expression and to fit in.

CD: Let's talk about inspiration. Where do you get yours from?

SL: What I usually get inspired by are my surroundings: strangers, people I love, interactions that catch my attention. It's in everything and everyone who allows me to stop in time and experience an emotion.

My sculptures often depict emotional moments translated into shapes. A moment of emphatic connection I like to call it. The clothes and sculptures I use are simply my way of relating to people I don't necessarily have anything in common with. You know when you accidentally lock eyes with a stranger and feel as though you both recognise each other's emotions in that moment without even learning their name? That's what I channel in my work. Bringing a familiar feeling into an unfamiliar environment. Finding comfort in the discomfort. 

CD: People conversing with your work seems to be an important part of the process for you. What is it about the familiar and unfamiliar that intrigues you so much?

SL: My works can be described as the 'awareness of society', the way we perceive it and the way we adapt to it. The identity of a person or a place. Our sense of belonging, our cultural roots, and our connection to our environment. The values and beliefs that we hold dear. My works explore the themes of identity, adaptation, and perception. They attempt to capture the complexities of society, from the chaos to the calmness, the tenderness to the soreness. 

All I want to do, really, is to challenge the viewer and get them to look at society from a new perspective, finding their own meanings, paths, and alternatives in the process. It's essentially primary research for me - to explore the boundaries of bodies and memories like I said.
For this reason, I've always seen styling as a tool of self expression, representing imaginary characters and telling a story. Through that lens I developed a more in-depth approach towards my surroundings and in relation to my art practice. This allowed me to create a visual representation of my ideas, feelings, and emotions. It was like I created a character out of the real world, and then expressed myself through that character. 

CD: Ahhh that makes a lot of sense. Especially in relation to what I've read about you modelling your sculptural casts off your own body. Why have you made this decision and how has it influenced your work? 

SL: I have always been amused by the interaction within people, from the way that you can understand someone just by looking at them and perceive a small movement of the eye or shy smile that never comes through as a real one.
And when I think about the art movements, some of the ones I was most inspired from, back in school, was Art Brut: the idea of allowing and accepting your inner self in a way that is not tangible nor understandable and translating this into art. For a young teenage me, and even now, this remains perfect representation on how deeply human beings can connect with one another on an emotional ground. 
For this reason, it makes sense for me to use my body as a way of connecting with others on a higher level. I'm not sharing my relationship with my body with others, that's different and is sacred to me. But what i'm trying to do it is open a door into an emotion, through which every single viewer can build their own story, and connect their own emotion to it. 
My works are just a way to say to my viewer 'Look I am here'. If you also feel a glimpse of emotion by looking at my works, it means that I am seen through your eyes, through your pain, joy and in general I am becoming part of you, I am real.