Sofa.bio


SOFA is the artistic collaboration between Leith Maguire (they/them) and Joshua Graham (he/they), also known as Joshua Joshua. This multidisciplinary duo combines their unique talents and perspectives to create innovative, genre-defying works that challenge traditional notions of art, identity, and our relationship with the natural world.


Background

Leith Maguire, born in 1985 in Meanjin (Brisbane), is a visual artist with a background in drawing, ink work, and gouache. Their practice has evolved to explore the intertwined relationships between human and natural worlds, informed by queer ecology and common worlds frameworks. Leith's work challenges binary and heteronormative narratives about nature and its inhabitants.

Joshua Joshua, born in 1986 in Ngurra (Blue Mountains, NSW), is a queer, multidisciplinary artist known for his vibrant musical recordings, video art, design, and interactive installations. His work spans various genres, blending art pop, indie pop, new wave punk, and techno, all unified by his unique artistic vision.


Collaborative Approach

SOFA's practice is characterized by a relational, process-driven approach that decenters Western, human-centric perceptions of Country and decolonizes relationships with place and landscape. Their work aims to create a dialogue between various art forms, the environment, and the artists themselves.


Recent Projects

SOFA recently completed a research and development residency at Bundanon, on Dharawal and Dhurga Country. This project focused on creating experimental works that reflect the artists' conversations and engagements with the landscape, their chosen mediums, and each other. The residency resulted in a series of sonic and visual studies that will form the basis of a larger, multimodal ephemeral installation.

Key aspects of their Bundanon project include:

  1. - Development of a compositional methodology allowing Country to document itself through custom-built, low-impact sensors collecting data from wind, rain, temperature, sun, and other natural phenomena.
  2. - Translation of raw environmental data into MIDI, applying sonic and visual properties to create layered compositions.
  3. - Documentation of the collaborative process using a super-16 digital cinema camera.
  4. - Exploration of embodied approaches to listening, interacting, and making, informing their collaborative practice.
  5. - Creation of an audio-visual installation representing Dharawal/Dhurga Country as a holistic and complex network of living entities.

Themes and Concepts

SOFA's work explores:

  • - Identity and transformation
  • - Shifting gender identity and sexuality
  • - Inner and outer landscapes/worlds
  • - Rejection of binary subject matter and genres
  • - Relationality with the more-than-human world
  • - Decolonization of creative processes and relationships with place

Artistic Vision

SOFA aims to push the boundaries of their individual practices by embracing spontaneity and experimentation. Their collaboration seeks to uncover new conceptual, sonic, and visual possibilities by working in relationship with the unique web of social, cultural, and natural landscapes they encounter.

Through their innovative approach to data collection, composition, and installation, SOFA invites audiences to experience and engage with Country in new and profound ways, challenging traditional perceptions of art, nature, and human interaction with the environment.