Sophie Goodchild

Background

Sophie was born in 1993 in Chester, northwest England. She did a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Manchester School of Art (2012), BA Honours in Fine Art at Kingston School of Art (2015), before finally graduating the Alternative Art School 'School of the Damned' in 2019. Although many students complete their education after a degree, Sophie has continued her education and got residencies throughout, from a residency in Tuscany in 2011, to MA Painting at the Royal College of Art as recent as 2021.

Seeing Sophies constant endeavour for further education, it shows the need for constant evolution and adaptability in the modern world. Especially in art, you must be able to adapt to new challenges and have the skills, resources and connections to succeed. To become a successful professional artist, you have to be constantly learning. This may be through seeking knowledge through conventional means (university or courses), or by your own experiences and word of mouth. To expect to know everything you must from one course, would be setting yourself up for failure.

Professional Work

Sophie aims to 'infuse the fragility of existence within the non-place, non-linear space between human and non-human.' A non-place is a place that is not concerned with identity, such as hotel rooms and shopping centres. A place where humans can remain anonymous and don't hold any significance on their own, although this can be highly subjective. For example, a shopping centre is a non-place to someone who's views it as purely a place they walk through to get to a certain destination, however for someone who works there (e.g. security guard), they go their to earn a living and it becomes a huge significant part of their life.

Non-linear (can have multiple start and end points, not sequential), and non-places come together to create an environment where things happen in random order with no apparent or logical explanations. Sophie uses this to explore the paradox between celestial and infernal (heaven and hell), bestial and human, and beauty and tragedy. This focus on opposites lends the viewer to imagine an alternative history and an indescribable future. 

Significant Other: Bulging Water 

'Significant Other: Bulging Water' is an exhibition of sculptures produced throughout her pregnancy. She used felt, ceramic, stone and salt to create these as they are all naturally occurring materials provided by the natural world. Felt and ceramics specifically came from the natural need to contain, carry and protect, a common trait in all living organisms. In many animals, including humans, a need for the mother to 'nest' while pregnant comes from the innate desire to protect their offspring and shield them from the dangers of the world. Ceramic is hard and strong, an outer shell, but felt is soft and malleable, a comfy inner lining. Layers of materials, interlocking and overlapping to create a strong protection barrier, much like the womb being protected by the mother's body. 

'To Carry' alabaster, bronze and watercolour is my personal favourite from this exhibition. It highlights the fragile centre of life, protected by an interlocking web of material. The two small, black, almost seed-like objects in the centre show how small and insignificant life can be, easily washed away and forgotten, only present by the protection of others. It shows me how easily we can loose things, and the desperation to keep what we know and love intact, and the lengths we will go to protect them. 

This can be mirrored in everything we see, the circle of life, forever protecting each other. Life sustains life, it can be tragic yet beautiful, but it is always necessary.