Sofia Córdova
Sofía Córdova’s current body of work uses science fiction, pop music, map making and obsessive collecting to describe a vision of the future. While at Kala, Sofia will focus on a project that revolves around a suite of original songs describing a future scenario during which an unidentified, catastrophic event has led to the decline of our current civilization and has radically challenged human existence on the planet. Experimental versions of the compositions are the soundtrack to a group of 8mm films documenting our lost past through atmospheric events and our dying natural world. During her time at Kala, Córdova will work on shooting new Screen Tests for this project in the shooting studio and process them, as well as new 8mm material, in the digital lab. She hopes to complete a video of the full performance by the end of the fellowship comprised of these tests. Ultimately these videos live in the installation ¡Auxilio! ¡Socorro! (working title) which also includes a series of ‘redactions’ (magazine and newspapers clippings whose content has been edited using black paint) titled The Kingdom Is Me. In order to grow this installation, Córdova will print these 2d works as oversized swatches of fabric to build the sails that make up the underpinning structure of the installation. She will do these digitally but will also explore the use of analog methods as the concept of this project dictates a high interaction between analog methods and hyper-digital image making.
Born in 1985 in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Sofía Córdova received her BFA from St. John’s University in Queens, NY in 2006, and her MFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2010. She also completed the one-year certificate program at the International Center for Photography in New York in 2006. Her work includes performance, video, and installation. At the center of her most recent investigations is pop music as it relates to the marginalized communities -Caribbean immigrants, blacks, gays, etc– who found solace in its myriad genres. Her work draws from the conventions and pictorial language of mainstream music videos, while creating a narrative surrounding specific issues of identity politics. Córdova is interested in how the space of the dance floor, the space within the length of any particular song can be a liberating space where the identities we’re bound to. To that effect, Córdova recorded a concept album made under the pseudonym ChuCha Santamaría in an attempt to participate in that tradition. She has performed at SFMOMA, SomArts and Galeria De La Raza among others. Her work has been exhibited at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, AMOA/Art House, Southern Exposure, Queen’s Nails, The International Center of Photography as well as other venues internationally. Her work is part of Pier 24’s permanent collection.