Sophie Standford

The Unearthings
A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About

@hortus_silvam

Trace Selected Works

Disembodied


1994
performance: 4 hours
Super-8mm black and white film | silent
camera: Sasha Koura
sponsorship: Paul Mitchell Shampoo

Disembodied took place in an old warehouse in South London. The room is filled with the decay and detritus of abandonment awaiting development; the sun shines in brightly from the open doorway into an otherwise dark space.
A figure in the far corner transfixes the image of a painting, washing her hair over a single bowl of water. The weathered grit and mould of the room's disuse become buoyant with aromatic foam, spilling a presence into absence.
Part of a The artist performs the act of washing her hair continuously for 4 hours. The white aroma of foam gently creeping away from the impromptu bowl on the floor. Visitors eventually have to step over the foam’s creep, and they gather to watch from seated positions on the floor around her. Then she left, leaving behind a space quietly transformed by her presence.Group Show at The Tannery, Bermondsey, London

The artist performs the act of washing her hair continuously for 4 hours. The white aroma of foam gently creeping away from the impromptu bowl on the floor. Visitors eventually have to step over the foam to enter the space and they gather to watch from seated positions on the floor around her. Then she left, leaving behind a space quietly transformed by her presence.

© Sophie Standford, 2026 
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