bio
Ophelia Arc (b. 2001) is a research-based multidisciplinary artist based in Queens, NY. Working across sculpture, video, and installation, Arc explores psychoanalytic themes rooted in personal experiences and memory. Ophelia earned her BFA from Hunter College and received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited at 81 Leonard, New York; Lyles & King, New York; Kates-Ferri Projects, New York; No Gallery; Marinaro, New York; and Collarworks, Troy; among others. Arc’s work has been featured in publications such as Artspiel, ArtNews, ArtNews China, Textiel Plus, Tique, and Visionary Magazine. Arc lives and works in New York.
statement
Obsession functions as the driving force behind my practice, which spans across textile, sculpture, and collage, exploring the fluidity between each medium. My work is done by hand, whether that be hand-sewing, crocheting, or drawing. Doing each aspect myself becomes crucial in the control I have over the object and the process. It also functions as a testament to my existence, a reminder of presence even when working through dissociative states.
The focus on materiality within my object-making is accompanied by a feminist-based research practice which situates itself within the realm of theory, philosophy, and psychoanalytic text. Psychiatrist Domina Petric defines the term 'psychological knot' as a tangled configuration of thoughts, emotions, or beliefs stemming from trauma. This knot is where I begin my research and, though a mutative process, I work to deconstruct and then re-stitch everything back together. Using the works of writers such as Susan Sontag, D.W. Winnicott, Julia Kristeva, and Siri Hustvedt, I work to analyze fragments of my childhood and subjecthood. Overarching themes can be grouped into various pairs of contradictions such as care/malice, starvation/consumption, and melancholia/mania.
I see all of my work as a form of skin—whether taut over frames, sutured onto paper, or stuffed into three-dimensional form. They are subject to constant care and harm, mutilating and mending, echoing life's paradoxes.