Sophie Aigner

Werke

I want to carve the message in stone

Installation view Galerie Oel-Früh, Hamburg © Edward Greiner

2024, fired clay, 29x24x3 cm © Marlene Zoe Burst

2023/2025, fired clay, 2 parts, each around 43 x 19 x 2 cm © Sophie Aigner

Body contours are carved into reddish clay slabs with irregular outlines, sometimes rounded, sometimes more or less square. Letters or mathematical symbols are scratched into the still soft surface with a pointed object (a kind of chisel) surrounded by fingerprints. There are also silhouettes of individual limbs, a foot or a finger in various constellations, sometimes alongside a few characteristic inner lines to suggest toenails or fingernails. When regarding the body, Sophie Aigner visualizes its tips: the peripheral ends of the extremities, toes and fingers, but also the nose and ear (medically acra.) [...] Hanne Loreck, in: Alright, it means something to me, Verlag für Moderne Kunst Wien, 2024.

Ihr beide

Fired clay, inlaid with acrylic paint and stone wax, concrete, steel
2 parts: 136x26x26 cm, 111x29x26 cm
Installation view public space across the town hall Gräfelfing
Invited by Kunstkreis Gräfelfing © Sophie Aigner — Fired clay, inlaid with acrylic paint and stone wax, concrete, steel 2 parts: 136x26x26 cm, 111x29x26 cm Installation view public space across the town hall Gräfelfing Invited by Kunstkreis Gräfelfing © Sophie Aigner

In the exhibited work “Ihr beide”, the artist transforms human limbs into sign symbols. The two gestural hand formations are excessively elongated and placed on poles like signs. However, the hands that emerge from the overlong arms point in different directions and therefore do not correspond to the usual signage systems and pictograms in public spaces. Instead, they enter into a playful dialog with each other and do not give the viewer a fixed direction, but rather release them into their own responsibility. Text: Kunstkreis Gräfelfing Like two signposts, the two oversized, bright yellow forearms with hands on them push themselves into the viewer’s field of vision as they pass the square in front of the town hall in Gräfelfing. The index finger on one hand warns, the other hand points downwards - should you bend here? Watch out carefully? Or is it best to take a different direction? The searching human being is the theme that Berlin-based artist Sophie Aigner explores time and again; the human body is her playground. [...] The clay limbs, embedded with arcyl and stone wax, will irritate passers-by, make them think and, in the best case, inspire them to take new, exciting paths. Text: Annette Jäger, translation: Sophie Aigner, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 26. Mai 2025

Alright, it means something to me

Sample page from the artist's book
Published by Verlag für Moderne Kunst Wien, Financially supported by Cultural Ministry of Austria and VG Bild-Kunst, Offsetprint, 76 pages, 32x24.5 cm, edition of 500, ISBN 978-3-99153-105-0 © Sophie Aigner — Sample page from the artist's book Published by Verlag für Moderne Kunst Wien, Financially supported by Cultural Ministry of Austria and VG Bild-Kunst, Offsetprint, 76 pages, 32x24.5 cm, edition of 500, ISBN 978-3-99153-105-0 © Sophie Aigner

“I want to carve the message in stone”—a statement that echoes the desire to preserve the ephemeral. But what message is meant remains unclear: are they the contours of body parts etched into red clay? Or simple calculations like 2+1-1-1? In her publication, Sophie Aigner explores the idea of voids and losses—ranging from literal holes dug into the ground to irretrievable moments of life. Through a combination of unglazed ceramic objects, aphoristic texts, and digital photomontages, Aigner creates connections between the material and the immaterial. Whether it’s a brick that reappears in ever-changing forms or deeply personal relics like a piece of umbilical cord, a strand of an ex-lover’s hair, or the bone of a living mother, these fragments speak of relationships, memory, and the longing to hold on in a world that is constantly in flux. Hanne Loreck

Oie, die Beiden

Bricks, spray paint, lashing strap, door stopper, 40x50x35 cm, Installation view Sox, Berlin © Marlene Zoe Burst

Doll’s house with chambers The “Home Work” exhibition in the SOX showcase project, which can also be viewed before the grand opening concert of Art Week, reads like a commentary on the city’s spatial situation. It features a humorous doll’s house interpretation of Richard Buckminster Fuller’s proposal to use “mechanized office buildings” for living, as they would be empty in the future “without wage earners”. Buckminster-Fuller’s idea from the 1960s is currently being reversed. The psychologically creative effect of a lack of space is then illustrated by nine artists in the chambers of the doll’s house: Sophie Aigner shows attempts at rapprochement between two bricks, Absalon, who died in 1997, practised knife attacks, and Kerstin Drechsel has a figure assuming different genders masturbate and offer her totally optimized sauna, work and living space for sale. Text: Sophie Jung, in taz, 9.9.2021 Translation: Sophie Aigner

Socke

Print on billboard, 252x356 cm, in the context of Reclaim Award, Köln © Reclaim Award

Sock: a sign of the times. In Sophie Aigner’s piece, she transforms a sock into a plaster cast. Its shape and material appear literally “worn,” thus giving her work a sculptural character. Since her choice of object seems arbitrary, it asks the question, “What do we leave behind?” The exhibited cast is one of several she has created. Text: Reclaim Award

Eckdaten

https://sophieaigner.de/

Fotografie, Grafik, Installation, Skulptur

* 1978

Ich bin Künstlerin und Autorin mit Schwerpunkt in der Bildhauerei, wobei ich mich "dem" bildhauerischen Begriff auch versuche anzunähern mittels Texten, Zeichnungen und Fotografien. In meinem Künstlerbuch "Alright, it means something to me" schreibe ich etwa vom „Knochen meiner Mutter statt Asche“ oder von „dem Kissen, das sie zerknautschte“. Gemeint sind Alltagsrelikte mit skulpturalem Potenzial – Objekte an der Schwelle zwischen Ding und Erinnerung, zwischen Materialität und Bedeutung. Zentral ist für mich hier die Frage, wie Vergängliches bewahrt und sichtbar werden kann. Oft entstehen meine Skulpturen, Zeichnungen und Texte gleichzeitig und beeinflussen einander. So beschreibe ich in einem Text einen Ziegelstein, den Kinder aus einem Haus herauslösten und mir schenkten. Später formte ich diesen Stein aus Ton nach – mit scheinbar sichtbaren Spuren von Fingern, als hätten die Kinder aus der Erzählung ihn tatsächlich angefasst und weitergegeben. Bei meinen Wandarbeiten (beispielsweise in der Serie I want to carve the message in stone) arbeite ich häufig mit Ton. Jede Fingerbewegung hinterlässt eine Spur, wodurch ein unmittelbarer Dialog zwischen Körper und Material entsteht. Außerdem beschäftigt mich die Darstellung von Beziehungen, Transformationsprozessen sowie Dialogen zwischen Anziehung und Ablösung – wie beispielsweise in Ihr beide. Um diese Dynamiken sichtbar zu machen, greife ich häufig auf Piktogramme, Zeichen und Gesten als Formen zwischenmenschlicher Kommunikation zurück. In diesem Zusammenhang orientiere ich mich auch an Objekten des öffentlichen Raums, die der Orientierung dienen. Sie fungieren als Zeichen des Zusammenhalts und dienen einer kollektiven wie individuellen Verortung.

Vita

Sophie Aigner is an artist and writer. She studied media+sculpture at the HfBK Hamburg under Thomas Demand (MFA) and Fine Art at the Bauhaus-University Weimar.

Exhibitions include Benaki Museum Athens, Union Gallery London, Eikon Schauraum Museumsquartier Wien, Hiltibold St. Gallen, Kunstkreis Gräfelfing, Kunstbrücke am Wildenbruch Berlin (upcoming), Collectors Agenda Vienna, Galerie Oel Früh Hamburg, Galerie im Körnerpark Berlin, Industriemuseum Chemnitz, Temporary Gallery Köln, D21 Leipzig, Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin, Museo dell`Osservatorio Vesuviano Neapel, b2 Leipzig, Kunsthalle Schloss Isny, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Emily Harvey Foundation New York, Sox Berlin.

Her writings were published in book publications and art magazines such as Materialeffekte (Jovis Verlag), DieNadel (Universität Leuphana), Über das Zarte (Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt), Magazin Kultur Mitte, vonhundert, tegelmedia, Simulacrum Magazine, Textur Magazine, Alright, it means something to me (Verlag für Moderne Kunst Wien).

Sophie Aigner regularly works in collaborations mainly in the field of music, performance and film. In that context she did the stage design for various shows by choreographer Antje Velsinger presented at Tanzhaus NRW, K3 Kampnagel Hamburg and Pact Zollverein Essen among others. Music Performances with Herkula Soft include uqbar Berlin, Nietzsche Kolleg Weimar, B2 Leipzig. Playacting activities include especially films by Angela Schanelec.

Sophie Aigner regularly gives lectures for example at UdK Berlin, HfBK Hamburg and HBK Braunschweig, interested in the intersections of art and writing, as well as artist talks in institutions such as Forum Stadtpark Graz, Traklhaus Salzburg, alpha nova & galerie futura Berlin.

Grants and awards include: grant Neustart Kultur Stiftung Kunstfonds, grant Digitale Vermittlungsformate Deutscher Künstlerbund, Literature grant Cultural Ministry Austria, Research grant Cultural Senate Berlin, Deutschlandstipendium, publication grants by VG Bild-Kunst and Cultural Ministry Austria, Shortlist Marianne-Brandt Wettbewerb, Shortlist Index 14 Berenbergpreis, Reclaim Award, Residency Pact Zollverein Essen, Residency Viborg Kunsthal Denmark.

Her work is part of public collections and libraries such as Fotosammlung des Bundes Österreich (supervised by Museum der Moderne Salzburg), Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection; Klingspor Museum Offenbach, Graphothek Berlin, Libraries: Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Hamburger Kunsthalle, DZ Bank Collection, Tate Modern London, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum Chur, Muzeum Susch, Getty Museum.