surface
Details
2007, SF Electric Works
Text
edition of 10
box set of 12 12” x 12” pigment prints
introductory text by curator Lisa Hostetler
“The reflection in a puddle glimpsed while stepping out of the car. The strangely hued liquid pooling in an odd crevice on the sidewalk. The ghostly tendrils of grass at the edge of a depression in the lawn after a particularly violent rainstorm. Visual moments like these penetrate the surface of consciousness inexplicably, interrupting the mundane practicalities that control most waking thought. Then, just as the senses remember their vital connection to the rich texture of everyday life, the office door opens, a car honks, or the dog tugs at his leash. Thankfully, Sonja Thomsen’s photographs preserve these split seconds of heightened awareness…so they can be savored later, quietly, with a vast and deliberate purposelessness that is its own justification.”