Sandorfalva Series / Zsofia Schweger / 2015-17

The interiors of Zsofia Schweger’s Sandorfalva series depict banal views of tight domestic spaces. Mostly one-point, these paintings relentlessly observe the rules of linear perspective even when it exaggerates objects and furniture at the edge of the picture plane. While the canvases are different sizes, they all observe a 5:6 portrait aspect ratio (decidedly not Instagram-optimized). Almost all non-furniture objects – flower pots, pillows, soap bottles – are represented as totally flat shapes. The paintings almost never allow a complete understanding of any rooms, but prefer a visual crop which isolate the planes of cabinets, walls, and windows as self-contained composition. There are no people, only scant objects left behind. Because almost every surface is a different color (a flattened way of depicting subtle differences in light and shadow on nearly coplanar surfaces?), the paintings read like the ‘Object ID’ channel exported from some rendering software.

Three indicative examples of contemporary digital collage interiors. L to R: Dogma, Like a Rolling Stone, 2016; Fala Atelier, Suspended House, 2020; Point Supreme, Koukaki Apartment, 2010.

It’s easy to compare these domestic portraits to popular digital college techniques in contemporary architectural representation [see above]. But, I believe Schweger can also challenge us to abandon some of the default operations of these techniques, as we photoshoppers prefer the polygonal lasso to the literal brush and work on horizontal monitors instead of tripod easels.

Text excerpted in italics and images reproduced below from Schweger’s original website. However, these images and text were originally accessed in 2022, and as of April 2025, the artist’s own website is not accessible. See this Internet Archive link to an indicative site status from 2022. To follow Schweger, see her Instagram and gallery page at Sapar Contemporary (New York).

“Sandorfalva, Hungary #27,” Acrylic on Canvas, 50x60cm

My work is driven by my experience as a Hungarian living abroad first in the U.S. and now permanently in the UK: I research the notions of home and belonging, local identity, and the emigrant experience.

In my Sandorfalva, Hungary paintings, I explore the motif of the house by returning to my first home in Hungary. Here my family lived for 20 years before permanently relocating to London. Now the house looks frozen in time, with most furniture and belongings still in place, waiting for eventual moving or disposal.

“Sandorfalva, Hungary #28,” Acrylic on Canvas, 150x180cm

My personal narrative has engendered painterly thinking of absence and presence, stillness and duration, space and flatness, feeling and apathy, cosiness and dread, the private and the social.

I pair potentially pleasant domestic interiors rendered in possibly seductive colours with a sure sense of alienation expressed by reductive and non-hierarchical paint application. My methodical, controlled approach to technique lets up, however, through touch: my hand trembles where colour blocks meet forming gently wavering lines. I want always to make paintings that are affecting and alive.