Sophia Tarducci is a Pittsburgh and Chicago based performance and video artist whose primary medium is puppetry. Her concepts often circulate around her experiences being raised Catholic, PTSD, femininity, and day-to-day social interactions. Tarducci uses the mode of puppetry to aid her narratives through aesthetics, concept, and imagined worlds utilizing this unique technique in almost all her recent pieces. The core goals of Tarducci’s work are to bring to light relatable but impactful issues and provide her perspective and experiences to create a shared community among her and her audience.
Artist Statement:
I tackle personal, political, and social issues through the medium of puppetry. I take advantage of the inherent ‘silliness’ that comes with puppetry to add a comedic aspect to my work while creating concrete characters and narratives. I construct all of my own puppets, often incorporating fiber work as well as painting. These puppets are made through felting, clay sculpting, paper mache, and simple sewing or gluing. My work aims to push my audience to question their surroundings and the way they view certain issues, while staying light-hearted and grounded. Puppetry gives me the creative freedom I need to create entire imagined worlds and spaces as well as the freedom to perform and express my concepts through a direct manner.
The focus of my work has been on trauma and fear, circumstances that make me have an intense emotional response. All of my work includes clear figures and characters, often used either to represent my concepts themselves or to bring my concepts to light. I like to investigate humanity, the way we respond to things and what fears this causes. Although I work with rather dark concepts, I do not want to guilt my audience or bog them down, I just try to provide helpful perspectives in a humorous way. I do not intend to make light of the issues I’m tackling, but rather to make them more palatable for viewers so they will then be able to break them down on their own. My work requires a partnership with the audience, participation through the mode of thought and analysis.