Atopia




Performance-film-text
Super-8mm black and white film
transferred to single-channel video
stereo sound
1991-2025
Duration: 2’26”
Location: 145 Bermondsey Street, London

Atopia is a performance work in a derelict building in London’s Bermondsey Street in 1994. The performance was unannounced, durational and ended with exhaustion. It was filmed in silence by the artist, in the decay of the factory floor, with stagnant water, moss and fungal slime. This work is one of a series where the artist used her hair to perform an act in a redolent location that leaves no trace.

flaying water from its stagnation
onto the plaster palimpsest
history silently watches
without trace
© Sophie Standford, 2025
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