Sonia E Barrett (Germany, Bavaria)
Run (2013)
Preformance sculpture (latex, milk, thread, wood, plastic skirting board, roofing nails), 2min
Artist Statement:
Sonia Barrett’s work is an intervention in furnished lives and offers new ways to think about subordination, privilege and objectification. Sonia has worked with communities in Italy and the US to articulate objectification and most recently has been made a MacDowel Fellow, a residency that gave her an opportunity to rethink some of the paradigms of furniture and re-construct the watchman’s chair as a tool for challenging some of the key issues surrounding objectification, mapping and “the gaze”. As a black mother of two ostensibly white children she is often mistaken for “the help” in her own family context. Race and motherhood are an intellectually and emotionally challenging lived experience.
Run is a time based piece and can be set up to change over time. A premiere “performance” of the installed piece can be made at the location it is shown in, and that shown on video behind the already preformed piece.
Of German Jamaican Parentage brought up in England, China and Cyprus, Sonia Elizabeth Barrett has an international range of cultural influences. She is a graduate of St Andrews University where she studied Philosophy, Literature and International Relations and the Transart Institute (MFA) Studio Practice. Sonia has won the Premio Ora award and was selected for the NY Artslant Showcase in the category of sculpture, She was a finalist in the Craft Emergency Award and the has been shown in Basel, London, Milan, Barbados, Berlin and London. She works and lives in Bavaria, Germany.