Ensemble of Three (Familiar Strangeness)

2023

Fabric, wood, metal

66 × 76 cm (26 × 29 ⅞ inches); 85 × 48 cm (33 ½ × 18 ⅞ inches); 85 × 60 cm (33 ½ × 23 ⅝ inches)

In this series, Sonia Kacem explores textile materiality and its capacity to reveal or conceal what it covers, endowing the works with a troubling sense of corporeality. Ensemble of Three (Familiar Strangeness) focuses on forms in transition, oscillating between multiple possible states, evoking at once the pictorial canvas or the portrait medallion, the trophy, or elements of upholstered furniture. Drawn from a repertoire of semi-abstract forms developed by the artist over time, the works’ enigmatic volumes suggest an open-ended narrative, potentially referring to the presences that inhabit the walls of our homes. The ensemble forms a constellation of shapes and materials that oscillate between ornament, abstraction, body, garment, and architecture. A space of gentle tension emerges, where textile becomes a sensitive interface between the concrete and the spectral, between reality and fiction, leaving the works open to other becoming.