“Those diseases which medicines do not cure, iron cures; those which iron cannot cure, fire cures; and those which fire cannot cure, are to be reckoned wholly incurable.” Sofie Muller is fond of quoting this statement by Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician and founder of the science of medicine, fascinated by the fact that even after 2,400 years, it has lost nothing of its validity. This Hippocratic doctrine directly relates to several motifs found in Muller’s recent “Psychonomics” series, but it is also important for her sculptures in general. In “Psychonomics,” various specialty scissors, sometimes old and rusted, stand for “iron,” i.e., for surgical instruments. “Fire” is a recurring element in Muller’s work, or rather, the traces left behind by fire—combustion residue, charred wood, burn marks, and soot. In recent years, she has developed, to virtuoso perfection, a very special drawing technique that exploits smoky soot from candle flames. She uses this soot, among other things, to produce delicately spectral sketches of bodies and body parts on paper, their immateriality redolent of x-ray photographs. …see the entire article in the print version of October’s Sculpture magazine.
