Sophie’s works reference places on the edge of a city, tucked in by green belts and infrastructure that is often pushed outwards: ring roads, waste facilities, nature reserves. These interests stem from the artist having grown up in Hillingdon (where green belt meets M25), her role as Head of Learning at Turf Projects, an artist-run gallery in a soon-to-be-redeveloped shopping centre in Croydon, and her home in Beddington (next to the South London Incinerator).
Sophie’s Jerwood Bursary will enable her to undertake a month’s residency in Redruth, at artist-run project space Back Lane West, considering the Great Crested Newt as a symbol of slowness and resistance. These elusive creatures, well known to property developers and ecologists alike, can grind building developments to a halt. Sophie will record a new radio play around these ideas.
