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Sorcha Frances Ryder, Wide Awake, 2023

Sorcha Frances Ryder

Wide Awake, 2023

Photograph | Unframed: 60 x 70 cm; Framed: 61 x 70 cm

Wide Awake depicts my friend Sarah in her bedroom, lying awake in the early hours, isolated and contemplative. Sarah and I graduated college together. We have since been tackling “coming-of-age” in our mid-twenties. This portrait represents a feeling of restlessness and the efforts one makes to soothe oneself by consuming media as a temporary distraction from reality and the weight of looming adulthood. The picture’s themes and textural qualities are inspired by the artist Nicole Eisenman’s painting Morning Studio of 2016.’ 

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