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Family Secrets

Family Secret is an immersive art installation that is travelling for a whole year, touring from one home to another. By showing her work in people's home, rather than in a gallery or a museum, Sofie Dieu aims at touching people from any age, social class or background.

 

These secrets are taboos within a family group : they can be about adoption, suicide, incest, heritage, collaboration with the enemy during war time, homosexuality... 

 

To avoid the unbearable shame, members of a family will silent the name of the person who has done wrong, turning him or her into a ghost that will haunt them indefinitely.

 

Victim herself of a family secret, the artist attempts through her work, to raise awareness on such issues and to encourage people to break the rule of silence that pulls apart family members everyday a little bit more.

Born in France, Sofie Dieu’s first encounter with art was through church. With a penchant for ritual and spirituality, the artist is best known for her fragile, sombre, and sometimes violent ink paintings and textile works.

 

Poetic and humanist, her practice draws on her journeys to China and Australia. She explores how identity and memory fluctuate according to their immediate environment. Landscapes, people, secrecy, healing, and the dichotomy between light and darkness are some of her recurring themes.

  

Multi-art prizes and award finalist, her work was included in the Sydney North Art Prize, Waterhouse Natural Science prize and the Contemporary Art Award amongst others. In 2016, she worked on the Camperdown Cemetery installation for Sydney Biennale. In 2017, her work will be shown during Vivid and Mental Health Month in Sydney.

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