Sophie Bower

Artist statement

As an artist educator I'm interested in creating opportunities or processes that are slowed down long enough for participants to notice fleeting thoughts or memories that might otherwise go unnoticed or become edited out.

For me, it's the process of each investigation that becomes the work… an engagement, a tour, a web-based campaign. Any outcome in a gallery space is something that complements the original work, an independently created form of documentation maybe. An exchange at a car boot sale is represented as a portable museum; a mediated tour round an art space is shown after the fact, as an annotated floor plan; a project interpreting participants' perceived blocks into their own individual fairy tale ends up as a bookshelf for viewers to peruse.

I am not driven towards focusing on one individual narrative; it's the sum of individuals, the collection of contributions, which end up presenting the authentic voice I'm looking for.

I have been a qualified teacher since 1989 and for have taught part-time since 2007 in a special school for secondary age pupils with moderate learning difficulties. I balance this with freelance positions and have worked as a creative practitioner in primary and secondary schools across Merseyside in collaboration with Creative Partnerships and Liverpool Biennial since 2007. I can provide a more detailed CV on request.