judith hopf explores different artistic practices such as sculpture, installation, and video. her inspiration stems from the ironic language borrowed from slapstick comedy, with which the artist addresses, through bitter awareness, important social and political issues. according to hopf, humor distorts what seems familiar, allowing us to look at reality in a different way. through the lens of irony, even the use of a cell phone turns out to be an unusual gesture. phone user 4 lingers on this short circuit.

the sculpture, belonging to a larger series, freezes in concrete a human figure intent on viewing the screen of a smartphone. a compulsive, sometimes unconscious movement is made apparent only at the moment when it is stopped in space and time. hopf focuses on the way one holds the smartphone and the reasons for coming into contact with it. phone user 4 appears as a rediscovered archaeological object, a future cast of contemporary society. the feeling of deceleration associated with the sculpture is further reflected in its construction, which, in the clay version, is made through the manual accumulation of matter. this slow scanning of the human body is then also rendered in the transpositions of the concrete sculpture. hopf’s use of these materials (clay or concrete depending on the contexts) does not reiterate a romantic return to nature nor does it follow a technophobic attitude, rather it corresponds to an ongoing engagement with economic and ecological issues concerning today’s art system and its politics of (re)production. placed below the san vitale gate, phone user 4 is an invitation to change pace, to stop and look around, a call to slow down.

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judith hopf