Not much is known about Kasper Sonne, besides the fact that he’s an artist. An artist, that could infiltrate into your mind and MAKE you feel his art, without using any kind of physical force. He was born in 1974 in Denmark, and currently lives and works in New York. He’s developed quite an interesting collection of art which may not seem like much at first glance; black paintings with nothing but one word in fancy font in each one. But if you look at each painting carefully, then you’ve fallen into his trap.
“Happy”, “Envy”, “My Sin”, and “Secret” were among the words on the fairly plain surface of each seemingly meaningless piece. But if you were to actually take the time to observe each piece carefully, you will indeed find something pretty mind-blowing.
"happy"
The above photo is of the one with the word “happy”. Besides the fact that the font fits the feel of the word, look around it. Since the only other thing besides the text on the piece is the black background, take a look at that. What do you see? You may notice that it’s been painted with non other than a paintbrush. But now look at the word “happy”, and look at the black paint. Do you notice how these brush strokes were made in a “happy” manner? This made me literally jump, and I was able to picture how the artist was crafting this while he was happy. It’s like in the latest Sherlock Holmes movie titled “Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Shadows”, in which Holmes and Dr. Watson easily determined someone’s mood by observing a letter the person wrote. This is probably the goal Sonne was trying to project to the viewer; seeing the mood of the word in the painting, or to be more specific, in the background as much as in the font used for each word.
ENVY
Now lets look at “ENVY”. By looking at the word and then at the brush strokes, you can almost feel that this piece has the actual feeling it is projecting to the viewers. To me, this is very interesting. It actually made me myself feel “envious” just by looking at it. It’s like an abstract painting that messes around with your brain and makes you feel that feeling. The same thing goes for all of these pieces as well. At first I walked into the room these were in, and from afar thought they were simply black paintings aligned next to each other on the same wall. I indeed think that this is worth walking into when you have free time, or simply when you are in the SoHo area. Where is it, you ask? You’ll have to look through the other fine galleries in the area to find out!
MY SIN
Secret
By: Ian Downing
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