Sofia Defino Leiby at Sweetwater

I stand across the light holding plastic bags.

I respond to the man I don’t know who smiles at me.

I don’t exist

only something almost near perfection I don’t even move my head and

I don’t even jay walk in front of the police car.

I remember the day the black yoga mat arrived,

I left the delivery guy standing in the hall.

I never heard him leave, but noticed he was gone later.

The packaging was lilac and black with a ribbon made out of

a shiny material. Unrolling the mat I didn’t anticipate the feelings

it would cause me every downward dog.

From an 8th floor window I spray a sad look into the dark courtyard

of the building. I can’t see the bespoke superplants nor hear any sign

that other persons are present.

I step outside into the hallway

is a highway in the home

I see signs along the road;

A corridor full of enlarged prints of fashion magazines

and lamps along the walls.

The prints are of varying quality and coming closer it becomes apparent that

Someone had printed the whole image on many small sheets of paper. Some are so blurry that it’s hard to read the header. Screenshots never meant to expand to this size.

When I entered, lots of girls invaded the highway

The female characters were everywhere.

In a forest surrounded by flowers;

Or in a city with details like

The Manhattan skyline

Russian churches

Roman columns

I look into the plastic bags

Left right slight right light left Left

I turn my head

and see the windows in front of me and decide

to do a full turn.

I think of Alphaville.

I’m wearing moon gloves.

If the moon water can do what

the others fail to do.

The trinket is meaningful, because it does not contain any noise.

It is an abstract little thing rendered concrete through words.

It can not exist.

It will remain in you

as it is only memories.

Since you already have a different world.

You should be the person in that world.

Nothing else.

‍

Text by Carla-Luisa Reuter

Sofia Defino Leiby (*1989, St. Paul, US) lives and works in Berlin. This is her first solo exhibition at Sweetwater, following her participation in the group exhibitions at the gallery Icon Maintenance (2020) and Cecilia (2019). Recent solo and two-person shows include ‘ΥΛΗ[matter]HYLE, Athens (2018); Page, New York (2017); Clifton Benevento, New York (2016); and Kimmerich, Berlin (2016). She has also been included in group exhibitions at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Regatta 2, Düsseldorf; The Green Gallery, Chicago; Sydney, Sydney; Nicelle Beauchene, New York; and Springteen, Baltimore, among others. Her work and her writing have been featured in Artforum, Artnews, Chicago Magazine, and Texte zur Kunst; Bauer Verlag will publish a forthcoming book of her prose in 2022. Leiby received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute Chicago, and studied with Amy Sillman and Monika Baer at the Städelschule, Frankfurt.