Sofia Malemina
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ABIOGENESIS
Video, 12:36 mins
The Abiogenesis artwork transcends the physical confines of the gallery space, delving into biological theories that conceptualise the origins of life. Inspired by Alexander Oparin’s 1924 theory of abiogenesis, which describes the formation of the first inanimate building blocks of existence, in other words the Primordial soup.
The piece reimagines and investigates existential cycles of change and evolution through artistic symbolism and augmented reality. Natural forces such as water and wind waves, merge with esoteric elements drawn from prehistoric mythologies, symbolising themes like power, regeneration, and renewal. Microelements are used to signify the complexity of the human mind, contrasting against the vast scale of universal processes. The installation emphasises viewer interaction through carefully orchestrated frequencies, visual illusions, and transitions, creating a cohesive interplay between natural forces and abstract forms.
This ephemeral, cyclical process draws attention to inception itself: a paradoxical state that cannot be touched, seen, or captured, yet cannot be dismissed as nothingness. The starting point is elusive and momentary, yet it perpetually reappears as initiation unfolds within every moment.
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EQUILIBRIUM collaboration with redozuba
Video, 0:40 min
This is a 40 second video and audio loop of a 3D stimulation developed with Blender software. The artwork's name comes from its bizarre nature of opposing forces. The two entities stimulate each other, while creating a metaphor between the physical and digital, real and fantasy. The solid tangible human body is moving slowly against and in tune with metallic fluid rhythmic waves, bouncing endlessly in the vacuum of its own existence. Meanwhile, the viewer becomes a voyeur of the unknown act – the birth of a contemporary hypnotic sensual dance. The spectator’s eye is drawn into the exposure and concealment, where the human form is both revealed and fragmented by the digital. Technology reframes the body, transforming it into something spectral, simultaneously present and out of reach, real yet otherworldly.
EMPTINESS
Projector, web camera, microphone, silver reflective film (walls), spray paint chrome (floor only)
The work EMPTINESS is an immersive light and digital graphics installation, navigating among blurred lines of the nonexistence. This is a symbolic and philosophic representation of the Void captured and fabricated into an artwork. The study originated as the ‘One Day in Silence’, a social experiment, where the silence is established by the absence of the sound. This time the artist's controversial search for Nothingness fosters a formula: substance elimination plus operation with the axioms – the light and the movement.
The artwork is a space where physical shadow meets digital projection, creating additional multi-layeredness and highlighting the density of the hybrid world. The space is built to create the link, to generate complexity. The graphic animation welcomes liberty of imagination. The reflective projections are sensorial to movement and sound, allowing the audience to feel beyond the limits of human perception to influence the distortion of the nonbeing.
00:07:35,000 -> 00:07:37,000
LED panels, foam board
The artwork 00:07:35,000 -> 00:07:37,000 is a sculpture made of LED panels and foam boards. It is one of the final stages of the experiments in the Nothingness series and the work that is significantly redeveloped from its original form both conceptually and physically. After rejecting the human form, video layer, images, and sound from the ‘One Day in Silence’ (ODiS) experiment, the artist is aiming towards the rejection of everything and decides to detach from the flat visual system and embody it as a physical object, with the help of technology.
The work consists of four LED panels forming a 3D rectangle. Two vertical strips of identical symbols scroll up the panels at varying speed, while another two simultaneously scroll down in the opposite direction. This sculpture is the symbolic representation of 2 seconds of sound from ‘ODiS’, generated by the AI program. It is a physical expression of silence.
The Void_2960
Abstract video, loop
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The Void_2960 is an abstract video loop and is a part of the Void object installation. The two intervened with their original file the ‘One Day in Silence’ experiment and are part of the Nothingness series. In this work the artist is rejecting the original image and reforms the sound into a new material arrangement. The main objective of this work is to move away from the direct, defined and generate abstract, contextual. The narrative lies in the controversial balance between image and sound, subtle and distinct, physical and inconsequential.
The work is presented in a form of one screen where the whole reimagined animation is presented: combination of coloured movable spots, coming together or splitting into diverse parts. No control of the lines, shapes, or colours, complete freedom of the outcome. This is a depiction of the craftsmanship in a futuristic unestablished form.
Vacuum
Sound video, 10:09 min
The Vacuum artwork is the sound video and the third experimental artwork in the series of Nothingness. In this sound piece the artist got rid of the visuals completely, leaving the screen blank and drawing the parallel with the Black Square — a futuristic painting “without any attribute of real life...” by Kazimir Malevich (tate.org.uk, 2022). The choice of the blacked-out image performed as a metaphor to the Nothingness concept. Resembling silence, where the black square is also present, and could be part of something bigger or something else. The Vacuum piece consists of four layers of sounds collected by each participant from the ‘One Day in Silence’ experiment, yet the sounds persisted. The multi-layered audio is a variety of hearing, ranging from natural, to man-made, to industrial sounds. They serve as another proof of the absence of silence.
One Day in Silence
Two screens, sign, noise-cancelling headphones,
8:23 min
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The One Day in Silence (ODiS) experiment is a socially based analysis of Silence presence in everyday life. This work is foundation for the sequence of conceptual artworks and experiments, in the attempt to materialise the nonexistence. Sofia begins with research of stillness in physics, art and philosophy. Then the development of the work is established in a prevailing CCTV- format of a social-study. Unlike previous works, this time the artist becomes a participant amongst other four randomly selected people – creating simulacra (as a synthetic environment with guide and restrictions) of silence and then refabricating it via simulation on a screen with sound proof headphones. During this project, Sofia states that silence is only a concept and develops ‘ODiS’ as a platform for further fascinating exploration.
Unknown diary
Video, 2:56 min
The Unknown Diary is a short metre film which is presented as a continuous play without having defined beginning or end for the viewer. The idea behind the film is stimulated by the concept of Simulacra and Simulation (1981) essay by Jean Baudrillard. The artist believes we have entered a new digital era, as the philosopher has predicted: that humanity is consumed by screens and the direction of their online replications.
Alike in life, in the film the contours of online and offline, reality and fantasy, forbidden and legal are disappearing. In the attempt to capture these perceptions, the artist is looking inward, developing an amusement with oneself, while depicting the duality of this act through the lens of the camera. The film explores: watching others, bird watching, spying on oneself, looking at the mirror reflection and other direct and indirect parallels. It ultimately leaves questions unanswered and the room for thought.
Look at me
Video performance, 0:58 min
In the Look at Me video performance obsession with spying, people watching and nonverbal communication takes a new personal turn. During the development of this work, the artist is overwhelmed by the fact that governmental and media structures have used surveillance cameras to collect personal data and privacy issues that can be part of this matter. Voyeurism is an act of watching others, but what would happen if the artist is spying on herself? Would this act remain uncomfortable? This video performance depicts artists turning CCTV video into a self-portrait machine. The experiment takes the form of a performative act, where data collection is the theatre stage. It forms the angle of aesthetics, scenography, choreography, psychology and last but not least – morals.
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CCTV
Experiment, video documentation
The CCTV experiment is conceptual and tentative and can be explored within several stages. Firstly, it takes its origin from COVID quarantine and unravels as the notion of isolation of the body. Secondly, it is highly inspired by the voyeurism movement, which is the act of viewing a person without their consent in a place where one has a reasonable expectation of privacy. In the history of art, the voyeurism movement has taken its turn since the 90s once the video footage became common to the public. Today, in the experiment, the artist, with the help of a psychologist and a lawyer, is depicting the human interactions and actions that resulted in almost cinematic yet unpredictable activities on the CCTV video footage. Once the rule of no contact between each subject takes action the only interaction of subjects we see is within the space. Everything becomes objective as the line of viewing advances to vagueness.
About Artist
Sofia Malemina is a London based multimedia artist specialising in video and audio engineering, virtual reality and interactive installation.
Artist’s creative direction is a curious and sensitive play of mediums versus attitudes. Representing the new digital generation of performers, she constantly syndicates disciplines in a search of innovative forms of non-commercial art. In the last years of practice her attention was on collective psychologies, voyeurism, existentialism, conceptual philosophies of nonexistence.
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