Project update

It’s been exactly a year since I made my last post, and since then a lot has happened. I’ve now updated my website to include 3 new projects. Click the links for more information about each project!

In the beginning of 2020, in April, I made a film called ‘A Birthday in Times of Corona’ ( watch and read about it here: https://sophieks.com/portfolio/birthday/). It was tongue-in-cheek stop-motion project where I showed how I make facemasks to the music of the Tielmann Brothers. It was also part of a larger project where I made, together with my mother, over 100 facemasks for friends, family, and acquaintances. The selfies where people proudly displayed their masks were all collected and a selection of them were published in a little booklet.

Bon Voyage was the next project. A collaboration between me and my mother, based on a giant leporello designed by my mother. This one I had started in 2019, and I finally completed it shortly after Containment Now, in September. It had already been shown at an exhibition in Gouda, but in November 2020 it was shown in its completed form at the Haagse Kunstkring in ‘We zien wel waar het schip strandt’. You can read more about it here: https://sophieks.com/portfolio/bon-voyage/

the video installation

And finally, the last update: the Zero-Covid posters. I made a series of six posters together with Thijs Vissia, again related to the subject of COVID-19 and the Dutch government’s strategy. These posters were shared by different organisations, all with the unified of goal of spreading awareness for a zero-covid strategy – keeping infections down to as low as possible (zero or almost zero), a strategy that is better for public health as well as for the economy. (successful examples are New Zealand and Korea) Read more about it here as well as the links where you can find free downloads of the posters: https://sophieks.com/portfolio/zero-covid-posters/

Making facemasks

So Corona hit. It’s taken me a month to adjust to this new, terrifying reality. Not only was I scared, I was also furious. So I’ve been making face masks, partly as a form of therapy, partly as a form of rebellion. I’ve been sending these to my friends, and to whoever asks me for one, usually on the condition of that they send me a photograph of them wearing it (the photo is kept private of course). They’re made out of fabrics my mother collected all throughout my childhood. A lot of them are Nigerian, some are English, and most of them come from the famous Vlisco factory in Helmond.

The first batch
The second batch
Yours truly with a mask on.

It was my grandmother’s birthday today. So I made her one as well, and I made an animation out of the entire process. The animation turned out so well, that I’m making it a portfolio piece!

And here we are. Stay safe and wear your mask.

(PS: I added Oma to my projects. You can see it here.)

One more edit: in my tiredness writing up this post I forgot to mention that I used a pattern made by Tiana from www.tianascloset.com! You can find it here, and make your own: http://tianascloset.com/index.php/2020/03/20/a-super-easy-face-mask-pattern/