Sophie Wurnig’s artistic practice revolves around the observation and reinterpretation of cultural symbols. She uses her camera to dissect how cultural value is assigned. Humour and irony are integral to her approach – tools she uses to destabilise clichés and expose the layers beneath familiar imagery. In Wurst, a slice of sausage becomes more than just food: through deliberate staging and repetition, it transforms into a sculptural form, asking viewers to reconsider its meaning. Is it still a cultural symbol, or has it become something else entirely? Wurnig’s work thrives in this ambiguity.

Sophie Wurnig, born in 1993 in Ohio, USA, studied Media Design at the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences. She later pursued a photography degree in Amsterdam at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Her work focuses on themes surrounding the concept of culture. She scrutinises clichés, and terms like curiosity and voyeurism come to mind when the camera becomes a tool for observation. Her projects explore questions about the creation of status symbols, how objects acquire cultural value, and how Austria deals with concepts of culture and tradition. She lives and works in Vienna.

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Umetniška praksa Sophie Wurnig se vrti okrog opazovanja in reinterpretacije kulturnih simbolov. Njena kamera secira, kako se dodeljuje kulturna vrednost, sestavni del njenega umetniškega pristopa pa sta humor in ironija, orodji, ki ju uporablja za destabilizacijo klišejev in razkrivanje plasti pod znanimi podobami. Rezina klobase postane v delu Klobasa več kot le hrana: ob premišljeni postavitvi in ponavljanju se spremeni v skulpturalno obliko, ki od gledalstva zahteva, da ponovno razmisli o njenem pomenu. Je še vedno kulturni simbol ali pač nekaj povsem drugega? Delo Sophie Wurnig se izraža prav v tej dvoumnosti.

Sophie Wurnig, rojena leta 1993 v Ohiu, ZDA, je študirala medijsko oblikovanje na Univerzi uporabnih znanosti Vorarlberg. Kasneje je nadaljevala študij fotografije v Amsterdamu na Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Njeno delo se osredotoča na tematike, ki obdajajo koncept kulture. Preučuje klišeje; ko kamera postane orodje za opazovanje, pomislimo na radovednost in voajerizem. Njeni projekti raziskujejo vprašanja glede ustvarjanja statusnih simbolov, kako predmeti pridobijo kulturno vrednost in kako Avstrija obravnava koncepte kulture in tradicije. Živi in ​​dela na Dunaju.