SOFIIA SICHKAR

My Oil work is informed by the sociological concept of social performance, particularly the theories of Erving Goffman and his idea that individuals navigate the world through a series of masks and roles. I am deeply drawn to this perspective and use it as a foundation for exploring identity, behavior, and self-representation within my paintings.

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Rather than illustrating social performance as it appears in everyday life, I use the concept as a framework for imagining and questioning the nature of identity itself. Through figures that combine human bodies with primate heads, I investigate themes of self-portraiture without creating literal self portraits. These hybrid characters become vessels through which I can explore aspects of my own experiences, observations, and contradictions.

A central theme in my work is the coexistence of opposites. I have often struggled with the contradictions within my own personality and beliefs, but over time I came to understand that opposing qualities do not need to cancel one another out. Instead, they can exist simultaneously. This understanding informs my exploration of the tension between human identity and animal nature, civilization and instinct, performance and authenticity.

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By replacing human faces with primate faces, I create a visual contradiction that allows both familiarity and estrangement to exist within the same figure. This transformation shifts attention away from individual identity and toward gesture, personality, behavior, and performance. The resulting figures occupy a space between the human and the animal, serving as a reflection on the many roles we perform and the complex, often contradictory nature of the self.

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The gallery setting functions as more than a backdrop. Inspired by Goffman's ideas of social performance, I view the gallery as a stage where identities are constructed, observed, and negotiated. The abstract paintings that surround my figures operate as both cultural objects and psychological spaces, reflecting internal thoughts, emotions, and contradictions. As viewers observe the figures observing artworks, layers of looking and performance emerge, blurring the boundaries between spectator and subject, authenticity and presentation.