Art Stream: Sonja Peterson
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Five Questions with Artist Sonja Peterson
Sonja Peterson
How would you describe your work?
I create large hand cut paper narratives as well as books, boxes, sculptures and collages that are based in drawing. Most works are a response to a need to unravel a truth within the endless matrix of information that I negotiate in today’s world by looking at historical events and science to absorb present day dilemmas.
How does someone get started in papercutting?
My start came out of trying to resolve large drawings- I needed to move them around to try to figure out different compositions and began cutting them apart. At this point it has come full circle and I am back to a single sheet for the large pieces. I would start looking at other artists that inspire you and looking into the history of papercutting as there are so many forms all over the world. Start small and go from there.
Sonja Peterson, Empire Builder, 2022. Cut paper on painted background.
Sonja Peterson and MMAM Curator of Collections & Exhibitions Jon Swanson at work installing What the Trade Winds Brought.
The title of your exhibition is What the Trade Winds Brought. Can you reflect on this title and how it represents the works presented in the exhibition?
I feel that once navigators understood how to make use of the trade winds and ocean currents, it was at that point- a very important point - that the world was accelerated to unlock destinations and a future to no return. It is only in the last few hundreds of years that our world sped up.
Much of my work has explored human’s intervention in the movement and evolution of nature with imagery of the natural world being rewoven faster than evolution’s loom as plants were replanted and shipped as part of the spice trade and new farms grow exotic new crops in non-native soils. Trade and migration and colonization connected many completely different flora and fauna of distant places. There are so many untold stories still to be heard.
Sonja Peterson, Try The Tydes, 2015. Cut paper on painted background. (detail)
You mentioned that you enjoy listening to audiobooks while in the studio as it feeds your visual imagination. What are your favorite audiobooks you have listened to in the studio and why should we listen to them?
Oh boy, well the list varies. There are so many, here are a few... Recently Annie Proulx' BarkSkins, Up from Slavery by Booker T Washington, Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization by Iain Gately, The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island by Scott Dawson, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.
What is next for you after What the Trade Winds Brought closes at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum on September 11?
Aw that's hard to think about as I am still enjoying my time at MMAM - so thankful to all at MMAM!
I have a few things coming up soon. I am currently waiting to see which location I am going to for my McKnight fellowship residency to recharge and make new work. Also exhibitions coming up soon include the Burnet Fine Art & Advisory Gallery in Wayzata, MN and next year a group exhibition at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts with the other three McKnight fellows of 20/21.
Minneapolis, MN artist Sonja Peterson creates large-scale artworks, sculptures and installations from complex and intricately cut paper. Her current exhibition at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Sonja Peterson: What the Trade Winds Brought, is on view now through September 11, 2022. I this exhibition, Peterson has created enchanting and entangled worlds where flora, fauna, and the history of travelers above and below the world’s waters come to life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.
Peterson considers artmaking an opportunity to learn, unlearn, and relearn the world around her. “I love reading about times of exploration, but to then dig deeper and uncover the unwritten or dismissed histories that run parallel to easily accessible written history,” says Peterson. Working in her studio, she often listens to audio books, which feeds her visual imagination. “I am interested in finding seen and unseen parallels in multiple notions of descriptive words such as ‘migration/immigration,’ ‘exotic/invasive’ and ‘native/passive.’”
Sonja Peterson answers some of our questions about her work, her process, and what she is up to next in this edition of the MMAM Art Stream Blog.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT COMES FROM:
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
