Artworks

Reclamation – 2023

‘Reclamation’ focuses on nature’s triumph as plants, trees, moss and mould regain spaces. The absence of human life is profoundly felt in industrial, institutional and often solitary environments.

At the heart of this series is a duality between architectural prowess and the fallacy that humankind has any permanent control over nature.

Soden laments capitalism’s insensitivity to its effect on abandoned people and places. We are offered a meditation on time, nature, industry and reclamation.

View series

trans

trans

Distanza – 2022

Every work in the Distanza series relishes in receding space. Abandoned grand architecture disappears into a single vanishing point, drawing the viewer in to a past that seems to exist in the present.  Technically ambitious, the Distanza works were created over a number of years.
Many of the works were captured in Italy, continuing Gina’s lifelong fascination with extraordinary and atmospheric spaces that abound there.

View series

How Long is Now – 2020

There is a deep paradox lying within the essence of this series. At first glance, the casual viewer might think her photographs depict the past: past dreams, past lives, past structures. In fact, Gina’s photographs really talk about the present and our perception of passing time. In her new series of works, Gina Soden pushes the viewer into a profound reflection about the meaning of time, and our understanding of the present moment — of Now.

View series

trans

trans

Ingresso – 2018

Ingresso was created in Italy and Romania over the course of a couple of years and several trips. It features abandoned villas, palaces, chapels and a bathhouse.
Occasionally the works show the first impression of the building and each piece features an entrance – hence the series title. There is a shift of perspective in this series, which doesn’t just focus on a centred vision.

View series

Corrodium – 2017/2018

Corrodium marks a major new body of work for the British artist Gina Soden. The series has developed over the last 10 months as Soden began to experiment with hand printing her imagery of abandoned buildings onto a variety of found materials. The process has developed in scale, ambition and range of surfaces including glass, reclaimed mirrors with foxing, copper sheets, aged aluminium sheets and steel.

View Series

trans

trans

Kaleidoscope – 2016

Kaleidoscope is a new departure for the British artist Gina Soden. Known for her evocative photographs of abandoned buildings that breathe beauty into decay, her new series breaks into abstract terrain. Just as a kaleidoscope operates on the principle of multiple reflections, so too do these prints. Soden has flipped, inverted and rotated fragments of her own images of various spaces and architectural components – from tiles to antennas and from ceilings to staircases.

View Series

Incremento – 2015

Incremento was created across Europe over the course of a year and its focus is on buildings that served a functional purpose – such as hospitals, casinos and summer camps – but also exhibit a grandness of architecture which is largely absent in the contemporary world. Each of these locations is lovingly researched and carefully discovered by Gina. The stage of neglect is incremental across them all – hence the series title.

View Series

trans

trans

Palac – 2015

In 2014 Gina undertook a massive pilgrimage to seek out abandoned palaces across Europe. From private devotional spaces to architectural displays of power and grandeur, the series echoes the epic political, social, cultural and religious developments across Europe in the last two centuries. The spaces speak only quietly of their former grandeur, the resounding impression is now of faded glory and diminished prestige. However, the diversity and opulence of architectural styles across Europe shines through.

View Series

Emergence – 2014

Emergence is a series in which Gina Soden explores the delicate balancing act in her artistic process. Her photographs are at once documents of time passing and presenting places the viewer cannot otherwise access whilst at the same time they are works of the imagination, providing beguiling glimpses to tantalise the viewer. They have to be part record and part invention. The series includes more objects in detail than before, such as the cinematic piano, the neglected car and industrial motifs.

View Series

trans

trans

Decadenza – 2013

Gina Soden’s follow up to Retrogression was Decadenza, a series that bore witness to what is now a lifetime obsession with the grand ruins of Italy. Gina presents the other side of the culturally rich, aesthetically magnificent country – long since forgotten asylums, derelict villas, abandoned churches and deserted industrial sites. The title Decadenza refers to a gradual process of deterioration and the loss of quality and strength whilst simultaneously speaking of the beauty the artist sees in these mesmerizing transformations.

View Series

Retrogression – 2012

Gina Soden’s debut series Retrogression launched in 2012 with a solo exhibition hosted in Soho’s Groucho Club. Travelling widely to undisclosed sites throughout Europe, this series explores various architectural gems in a state of retrogression. The genesis of each piece is often the unique architectural character of each location, heightened by their painfully slow transformation after years of abandonment. This was the beginning of the artist’s exploration of the boundaries of beauty, decay, nostalgia and neglect. These works found their way into collections throughout the UK, Hong Kong, New York and Miami.

View Series

trans