Sophy Rickett

Career

Sophy Rickett was born in London. Between 1990 and 1993, she studied for a BA (Hons) in Photography at London College of Printing, London. Her work came to prominence in the late 1990s, following her graduation from The Royal College of Art, London in the Summer of 1999.

One of her earliest works, Vauxhall Bridge, depicted Rickett urinating standing up while attired in expensive feminine clothes, against the backdrop of Terry Farrell's iconic SIS building at Vauxhall Cross. It was reviewed in Creative Camera magazine in 1996. Some people saw the "Pissing Women" series as a satire of male behaviour, though many did not know the women were genuinely urinating. Sophy Rickett stated in the interview "this was something I did," and the photographs were not manipulated.

Rickett's photographic work explores the competing forces of light and darkness in defining and articulating space, often using photography as a way of exploring the distinction between seeing and looking. She is interested in the tension between the abstract possibilities and narrative tendencies of photography, film, and video. Her photographs are made mainly at night, and often in peripheral or mundane environments. In both colour and black and white, they cohere around strong formal properties, and are often minimal in character. While playing on the latent narrative possibilities of place, her work demonstrates the potential of photography to conceal as much as reveal.

Auditorium and To The River

Like her photography, Rickett's video work has a strong conceptual element. Her first major film installation, Auditorium (2007), was a response to the architecture of Glyndebourne Opera House. It explores the material reality of an industrial space that exists to create illusions. More than 70 hours of footage shot over 10 days were pared down to a 20-minute film with a score by British composer Ed Hughes. Nicolass Till, who writes frequently on the opera, says that it presents the stage as "a space of revelation that at the same time implies a concealed other."

To The River (2011) is a multi-screen video installation with 12 channels of sound. Filmed during the spring equinox of 2010 on the bank of the River Severn, To The River depicts small crowds of people gathered to wait for the Severn bore to pass. Filming was done mainly at night. The video installation consists of three screens set at different points in a gallery, two on separate walls, and one spanning a corner. Surround sound from the audio tracks was played at several points in the ceiling. The audio captured fragments of conversations between the spectators waiting for the river to rise, "a collection of very human stories that touch upon mistakes, failure, desire, loss, ambivalence and resentment... a prolonged encounter with the momentary reversal in the flow of things."

Auditorium was commissioned by Photoworks and Glyndebourne Opera, and To The River was commissioned by film producer Elena Hill in partnership with Arnolfini and ArtSway. Both projects were supported by grants, and both resulted in publications, from Photoworks and Arnolfini.

Exhibitions

Selected solo shows include:

Selected group exhibitions include:

Publications

Monographs

Anthologies and group exhibition catalogues

Public collections

Sophy Rickett's work is included in the following public collections.