About my work
My work explores the physical weight of emotional experience, particularly how we carry and process grief throughout our lives.
Drawing from my experience of losing my father at age 13, I have created objects that transform invisible feelings into tangible forms, making memory something you can touch, hold, and sometimes wear.
I'm particularly interested in bridging private and public expressions of mourning. Growing up in "stiff upper lip" Britain created a disconnect between my internal experience and what I felt able to share. My work often uses coding systems, such as morse code, to explore this tension between concealing and revealing emotional truth.
Through repetitive, process-driven making, I've found that grief work is also memory work. My materials are often deliberately fragile, reflecting the vulnerability of recollection. Each piece honors the space between letting go and holding on, between individual experience and universal understanding.
This creative practice has become a form of emotional archaeology—excavating childhood loss and reexamining it from an adult perspective, finding that everywhere I go, these formative experiences travel with me, shaping how I move through the world.
Sophie Conolly