Sophie
Standford
Statement

A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Work on paper

Bio

Statement
My art practice is motivated by the intensity of life; noticing the minutiae, tracing encounters with nature, informed by the sights, sounds and smells of the real, the imagined and the remembered, coalescing with the passing of time.

I use moving image, to work alone performing unannounced and unrehearsed, capturing fleeting moments, within the parameters of a loosely defined framework which embraces the aleatory; extending ideas into the imaginary.

My work records and documents a subjective, observational, poetic narrative, diverse in form and content, both reflective and responsive, allowing the humour and absurd to interact with the melancholy and disquiet of my findings; to shimmer briefly in your imagination.

Inner Landscapes and Absence Presence are overarching themes within which I explore the inter-relational, loss, grief and the necessary occult that lurks within us…a journey into the darker recesses of the mind.

Since moving to rural Suffolk, I have been confronted by my own assumptions and expectations with regard to the concept of ‘rural’. A Rural Idyll and In the Forest Garden are two entwined bodies of work which continue to grow; a self entangled with its local environment. The aim is unashamedly to raise public awareness in ways that are poetic, playful and imaginative but profoundly serious, by giving form to our rapidly diminishing habitats for flora and fauna to survive. I witness here the demands of extraction and extinction, associated with perpetual growth and expansion, with a bewildering disbelief at the damage we wreak on our natural world. 

© Sophie Standford, 2025
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No part of these pages, either text or images may be used for any purpose other than personal use, unless explicit authorisation is given by Sophie Standford.