Artist Statement
Sophie Chao is an Asian American Artist based in the Baltimore area.
Using textiles and oil paint, Sophie reconstructs mass-media imagery to challenge narratives of glorified violence, masculinized heroism, and the exploitation of Asian femininity.
From cowboy westerns, big-budget war films, 1940s cartoons, superhero comics, to mass-produced action figures, cinematic bloodshed is an inescapable ingredient in American pop culture. These images are seductive yet volatile, mass-produced until destruction becomes both spectacular and absurd. Depictions of violence are made consumable, and heroicized violence is displayed as an epic norm.
Sophie attempts to explore why these images remain so captivating from her perspective as a multicultural Asian-American woman. At the core of her artistic practice, celebration and critique lie in constant tension. Using hand stitching, and oil paint, Sophie reconstructs the imagery of American culture, questioning hypermasculine narratives and re-inscribing them with a feminine and diasporic viewpoint.
By bringing commercially pervasive images into the fine arts space and reimagining them with traditional craft techniques, Sophie contemplates on their significance outside the realm of media. Through the use of slow labor, stereotypically domesticated process, and the implementation of Eastern visual motifs, She imbues new cultural and feminine connotations within a genre dominated by hypermasculinity.
