Sonia Mangiapane

Nature's Playground [detail]
2020
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
homage to DDD [detail]
2020
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
Mascot [detail]
2021
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
Placema(r)ker [detail]
2021
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
Sliver [detail]
2021
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm

As a photomedia artist I work with media and processes defined primarily by their use of light, as opposed to the exclusive use of the camera. Employing a range of camera-based and cameraless processes my practice takes the form of photographic prints, cameraless or hybrid works on paper, experimental short films and other moving image works. The colour darkroom in particular is a core site of my practice—it’s a space in which I make, rather than take a photograph. Guided by my fascination with the physical properties and ethereal qualities of light I explore concepts relating to travel, Nature and notions of photographic time.

What does it mean to travel to Nature today? During This I will exhibit a selection of prints and video works which explore how we mediate our experiences of the Natural world. Employing abstraction, cameraless production methods, and kitsch aesthetics my work seeks to raise questions around the artifice of sightseeing, chasing the sublime, our relationship to Nature (or what we think it is). It says something about selfie-culture, family portraits and the way we experience places through our (phone) cameras, rather than through our senses.

Born in Australia and living in the Netherlands, I hold an MA in Lens-based Media from the Piet Zwart Institute (2020). My practice is currently supported by the Mondriaan Fund through their Artist Start grant (2022).

snmngpn.com
Nature's Playground [detail]
2020
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
homage to DDD [detail]
2020
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
Mascot [detail]
2021
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
Placema(r)ker [detail]
2021
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm
Sliver [detail]
2021
c-print (photograph with darkroom intervention)
90 x 76 cm