Sophie Haulman

Please share a bit about yourself.

My name is Sophie Haulman. I am originally from Wilmington, North Carolina. I got my BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA (2019). Since early 2020, I have been living and working in Brooklyn, NY. I am mostly working with ceramics now, though the application of my education in sculpture is key to the way I approach using this medium. Through ceramic and mixed media sculpture, I take inspiration from my experiences as a dancer, my relationship with food, and finding passion in visual and sensual preoccupation with materials. My work explores the sensuality of space and the body through material-based experimentation, tactile methods of surface finishing, and formal explorations in the physical. These studies often elicit qualities of attraction through touch and sensation while being restricted to a purely visual and spatial experience.

Could you tell us about your craft and how it has evolved over the years?

It took me a long time to really figure out what I wanted to do in the realm of art-making. Pre-undergrad, I was exclusively a painter - focusing on figurative and slightly abstracted forms. During the process of applying to my major, I realised that I felt restricted and uninspired by pursuing painting, and so instead I entered into the Photo + Film major where I felt I could expand my investigation of imagery. I spent only one semester there before switching into Sculpture. At VCU, Sculpture + Extended Media is the major for any kind of person who wants to explore any kind of art-making without limitation. Here, I thrived - exploring many new mediums including wood, food, plaster, silicone, mould-making, performance - and started to develop a body of work that was informed by my visceral infatuation with sensual experiences between oneself and a “piece” of art (whatever form that may take). I abandoned 2D imagery and dove head-first into the tactile.

I only started working with clay in my very last semester of college, and it became really therapeutic for me to move and sculpt bits of the earth with my body. I fell in love with the medium and have continued to explore it in a variety of ways - utilitarian and abstracted - in my ever-evolving practice.

What and who inspires you?

So many artists, so much art, macro views of surfaces, objects with no utilitarian purpose, topographic maps, aerial views of the earth, contact improvisation, bodily synchronicity in movement, beautiful food and its presentation, nontraditional vessels, amorphous forms, and textures.

Can you take us through your process? Do you have a favourite part of the creation process?

I have developed over the last few years a really antithetical process to the restrictions I used to follow, which is that I now hate to plan ahead and I almost never sketch things out first. I get a vague idea in my head of what I want an object to look like, and then I start to make it. By not limiting myself to any specific plan other than loose guidelines of what the object should be, I am allowing the process to happen naturally. It usually works out in my favour, and if not, I am at least less likely to be disappointed with the result. It’s all play and experimentation, that’s the best thing about it; I am not following rules, I am just letting the material be.

How do you allow yourself to make mistakes, and learn from them, so you can venture into new territories?

Ceramics itself is a very unforgiving medium. At any step in the process, your piece can break, crack, chip, explode, or be effectively ruined by a bad glazing job or a misfired kiln. So many pieces don’t make it through to the end. That can also be the case with any other experimentative conglomerate of materials I decide to combine…because I tend to be so averse to testing or measuring, I have to be prepared for the thing to not work out. But from each failed piece, I learn something, and simply try again.

The execution of your work is extraordinary. Can you share your thoughts on how important is time in developing such great details, colours, and quality into your pieces?

Though I don’t tend to “plan” a piece much before I start it, the whole process of actually creating it is a somewhat long and meditative ordeal, and I must spend a lot of time looking at it, feeling it, sitting with it. I really consider what the form wants to become, and adjust my ideas based on that. Creating a harmonious balance between dimensional shape and colour while maintaining overall simplicity requires a lot of sitting, staring, and considering. My work can not be rushed.

What meaning do you give to your practice?

I don’t always effectively communicate what I’m feeling, but in making art I find that I can express myself more wholly. If I am not making, then I am not really processing my experiences in the same way. That’s what gives my work the most meaning to me. I hope that that personal depth of vulnerability comes through in my work and that other people can find their own meaning within it. Each is a vessel of a piece of myself, like a child I’ve created and released into the world. My offspring of passion.

Why do you think people should learn and care more about the objects they surround themselves with?

We live in a world of immediacy and mass consumerism, anyone can buy anything anywhere at any time. What you surround yourself with greatly impacts you and becomes a subtle but intrinsic part of your life. Making the choice to surround yourself with objects that give you joy, make you feel something, and enrich your everyday life is one that must be intentional. There is a heightened level of awareness of one’s environment and surroundings when each item within it is purposeful.

Do you believe that crafts can lead to social change, particularly concerning sustainability and ecological behaviours?

I believe that in this world where so many things are produced with such mass expediency, the act of producing objects of art slowly and intentionally (whether utilitarian or not) can always disrupt that cycle. Craft has such a rich history in all parts of the world and is very directly connected to the earth in nearly every way. Art is perhaps the most important tool for enacting social change of any kind, and crafts find themselves at the crux of that materiality.

What are you working on at the moment?

I have a trunk show up with Moda Operandi right now through the end of September - clients can place a pre-order for one of a few pieces I’ve made, and then I construct replicas of those pieces for the order. I am also working on a few new larger vessels to include at the Affordable Art Fair in Chelsea from September 22-25. I am part of an artist collective called Eleventh Hour and we will have a booth at the fair for all of our artists.