Sophia Olivieri

This work is part of Curatorial+Co.'s 2026 group exhibition, 'The Beast In Me'.

Of all the internal mechanisms that drive us, perhaps the most primordial is the beast. We expel the animal, the bodily, the base in favour of the intellect, yet it is the beast that holds what is most irreducibly human—impulses and desires that precede thought: love, rage, care, protection, connection. The very thing we suppress is also the thing that touches what is most vital.

Sophia Olivieri's ‘Discipline’ balances both structure and softness, restraint and refuge, through the reworking of a Victorian-esque footstool. Olivieri utilises her signature floral embossed silicone prosthetic skin to upholster the furniture piece once associated with domesticity and comfort. Through the visual cue of corsetry which pierces deeply into the skin, the work serves as a negotiation between the sensual and the estranged. Ribbon is neatly laced and tied in a bow, further alluding to the sexual restraint and propriety of the Victorian era, while also referencing the contemporary grunge/coquette ‘corset piercing’ trend. Here, the bodily is represented without form or figure, blurring the lines between corporality and object in order to raise questions surrounding labour, intimacy and privacy.