Flock

The three summer exhibitions at the Cincinnati Arts Association's Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts are linked by artificial interpretations of nature: Artificial by Nature: Mixed Media Installation by Shawna Guip; Iteration: Mixed Media Installation by Celene Hawkins; and Flock: Site-Specific Installation by Sophia Hayes.

Participating in a diverse range of environments, Sophia Hayes (England/UK) uses installation and the moving image to explore notions of temporality and transience. Her work is an investigation into connections: living and dead, real and artificial, the inevitability of change through time, and the human compulsion for preservation and control. For Flock, Hayes engages the vertical expanse of the Weston Art Gallery's street-level exhibition space, suspending a flock of fifteen motorized taxidermy ducks from the ceiling that continuously circle above viewers' heads, eliciting a disquieting uncertainty of response.

Sophia Hayes received a bachelor of arts in fine art from Nottingham Trent University, UK in 1995 and a master of arts in fine art in 1997 from Winchester School of Art in Barcelona, Spain. She has participated in numerous artist residencies at the Center for Contemporary Art in Prague, Czech Republic; Arte Open 2001 in Staranzano, Italy; Edsvik Art Centre in Stockholm, Sweden; and the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. Her work has been exhibited extensively in London, UK, and in Italy, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Flock represents her first installation in the United States.