In these new works, I explore the tension between abstract and representation, and between arbitrariness and specificity, mediated through process and painting. By playing with the balance between what can be controlled and what is left to chance, I shape both what the viewer is allowed to see and what is left for the imagination to complete. This physical maneuvering is much like an internal process of revisiting past narratives through therapeutic methods: re-framing stories, re-imagining memory, re-forming memories can bring healing. In these works, I use imagery of nature brought into domestic spaces as metaphor for memory, and the painting process as ways we can reshape personal narratives in pursuit of transformation.
The series draws from my ongoing practice of photographing houseplants as a way to document daily mundane moments, without the complication or intimacy of including a person’s face. The pictures of the plants, composed quickly with my phone camera, serve as portraits of time and reminders of a memory as I quickly and intuitively capture light and space. Removed further by creating instant prints of the illuminated phone screen, I document the images with date, time, and location, creating a growing archive. The resulting images, often with warped framing and stark contrast from the process of removal, resemble windows into a narrative that invites reinterpretation.
Taking the original prints, I harshly cut out elements and fill the shaped void with additional imagery, then create a painting or drawing from the resulting collage. Through this process, I explore the ways in which layers of meaning are built, deconstructed, and rebuilt, mirroring the way we engage with our own memory, history, and our relational understanding of the world. The void of the plant, much like our experience with loss, is a presence into itself – a recognizable illustration of grief. By filling the void with more plant life, often inverted or abstracted, I challenge the idea that absence is inherently destructive. Through expressive marks and a vibrant palette, I invite the viewer to see the transformed space as one of possibility, where absence can lead to hope.
Through collage, abstraction, and repeated reference to the original imagery, often within the same piece, I seek to reconcile the fragmented parts into a revised, unified whole where something new can emerge, whether on the picture plane or within the viewer’s conscious mind. Overall, I aim to depict light-filled moments, emerging growth, and transformative change through the lens of the nature we bring into our lived spaces. In these paintings of domestic containment of nature, I explore how the nurturing of plants connects us to ourselves and to the world around us.
Bio
Sonya Berg is a multi-disciplinary artist and administrator based in Austin. Originally from Philadelphia, PA, Berg received her MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. She has held residencies at Parts & Labor in San Antonio, Wild Basin Creative Research Center in Austin, Djerassi Residency Artist Program in Woodside, CA, and Vermont Studio Center. Berg is a recipient of the TSP. Artist Prize from Easyside in Ft. Worth, and an Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund Award from the Dallas Museum of Art. She has recently exhibited at Friends Fair in Austin, Kinfolk House in Fort Worth, and Co-Lab Projects in Austin. Berg has taught at St. Edward’s University, and currently works at Landmarks, the public art program of the University of Texas at Austin.
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