SOPHIA OLIVIERI
Subcutaneous Series
Olivieri's works serve as a conceptual study and visual exploration of the skin as both a surface and organ, where gender is often inscribed through grooming and rituals. The works pose as a manufacturing of gender, a surface of prosthetic skin inscribed, contorted and fused with materials in order to pose as the feminine. Olivieri acts as an abject seamstress hybridising textile and skin to emphasise the idea of visibility versus privacy, negotiating between the internal versus external. Through the grotesque and abject, the works further present the undesired aspects of the skin, highlighting how it often fails us in our performance through its fragility, translucency and hormonal outbursts.
