Maisie Holmes

Noun. Sonder. The profound feeling of realising that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it.

My practice primarily involves the intervention of found photographs and the concern with the concept of the noun ‘Sonder’. I have realised since finding these photographs while studying abroad in Portland, Oregon, I find comfort in examining the lives of others. Being more of a listener and an observer, I find it interesting to delve into each photo as though it’s almost a window into the story of someone’s life. I feel I picked these photographs up subconsciously, searching for some kind of comfort due to being away from home in such unfamiliar territory. I feel a sense of duty to hold reverence to each one of these photographs, as individual and personal memories that each one signifies while also intervening in that discourse and adding my own narrative. I aim to encapsulate the subjects and the notion that everyone ‘has a life as complex as one’s own’. Although it may not be obvious to the viewer as to what each subject’s stories are, this just helps to second the notion of Sonder, ‘despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it’. It strikes me that the word ‘Sonder’ itself, similarly to the technique I have used, implies the slowing down of looking, in life, in the piece and in the process of making.

Throughout this series is a set of repeated actions, in response to each photograph, using a combination of different components, the most common tool being embroidery, another collage and colour blocking. I refer to contemporary embroidery and collage artists such as Maurizio Anzeri and Roy Voss who both use the intervention of found sources in their practice and the concept behind each piece presented varies throughout their series of works, similarly to my own. 

I find the contemporary use of digital photography in this series a juxtaposition with the use of embroidery, a medium with an extensive historical context. I connect myself with the tradition and societal narratives around needlework and those before me. Embroidery can be seen in two different lights, one being the reinforcement of femininity, yet the other domesticity which challenges that very notion; my practice is a re-ownership of the outdated gender roles. The technique as a personal process acts as a form of therapy as I use it as a tool to break free from perfection and control in my practice. I find embroidery allows me to greater process my thoughts and responses to objects, things and beings in an immediate way. Stitching is unapologetic as soon as the needle pierces the fabric the line has begun which for me is refreshing, as a traditional artist I too often manipulate an image over and over when in fact some of the responses are better untouched and in their first form. This piece sets out to allow this imagery to be accessible to the viewer, in a way that people ordinarily may not hold as much attention to detail.