Beyond inter-species objectification towards inter-sufficiency Sonia Elizabeth Barrett Art History Research Lecture

Sonia E Barrett engages plants, animals, elements and people to create interventions that presence their objectification and commodification. She questions how to change perceptions of phenomena conceived as “natural”. Her work seeks to destabilise certainties associated with the hegemony of normative Western European values.

Born in the UK of Jamaican and German parentage Sonia E Barrett grew up in Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Cyprus and the UK. She studied literature at the University of St Andrews and her MFA at Transart Institute Berlin/New York.

Concerned with placemaking and (re)claiming space, her work unpacks the boundaries between the Determined and the determining with a focus on race and gender. She makes sculptural works so that she can run her hands along the fissures, manifest strategies for multiple compatible existences, and mourn.

Sonia is a MacDowell fellow and member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. She has been recognised
by the Premio Ora prize, NY Art-Slant showcase for sculpture and the Neo Art Prize. She has exhibited in Jamaica, Uganda, Germany, the US and in museums and galleries across the I-JK. Her works have been published in the International Review of African American Art, Black History 365 Journal, Kunstforum International, Protocollum, ELSE journal and the Contemporary & Platform. She is a co-initiator of the AIPCC in Bavaria,Germany.

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