Artist Statement

In her multidisciplinary work, Sarah Westphal explores notions such as time, perception, and consciousness. Space serves as a container and projection screen of these elements. What is the relationship between people, objects and their surroundings? A key part of this investigation focuses on how qualities of place contribute to our human experience. How do we perceive the world around us? What stories can be read from the layered history of imprints?

In a kind of archaeological research, Westphal (re)constructs missing links in site-specific installations that can be physically experienced. Sculptures, photographs and projections shift between two- and three-dimensionality, between reality and fiction. With an evocative tactility and high sensuality, Westphal opens up spaces inviting the viewer to get lost in them. The entire oeuvre is a labyrinth in which to wander and lose one's way, a mental space that seduces and deceives. Westphal’s slow process of waiting, watching, where the gaze sees, feels, hears and tastes could be an antidote to the ephemerality of images nowadays. Instead of a conventional way, Sarah Westphal uses photography or other media as an element to activating space, as drawing and sculpturing with light.