L-R: Rag Porth install for Hospital Rooms at Longreach House; reading of Catching Copper at National Trust East Pool Mine photo credit K Buckler.
STATEMENT
My practice spans sculpture, drawing, film, broadcasting, research and social learning situations.
My work reviews and questions systems and structures of power, challenging us to claim agency and responsibility for the roles we play in the ecosystems we occupy. I aim to bring people and ideas together to foster responses of sensitive imagination and empowerment, and acknowledge the mess, tensions and challenges of many of our lives.
My work is rooted in my lived experience of otherness - with poverty, precarity, neurodivergence, trauma and minority culture influencing the work I make.
My artworks are multi-faceted - drawings or prints may sit alongside sculptures cast in metal or wrapped in cloth; components of acrylic and clay may balance, while symbols and forms layer through paint, film or text. These fragments work together to generate whole supportive structures.
BIOGRAPHY
Sovay Berriman is an artist working for 25+ years, based in Cornwall, UK.
Sovay studied sculpture at RCA, London. From 2023-24 she was the a-n Clore Visual Art Fellow, with a secondment with National Theatre Scotland and a published outcome, 'ReWilding Arts Leadership'.
In 2025 Sovay presented 'Catching Copper' a new exhibition at East Pool Mine in partnership with The National Trust drawing upon personal experience and memories to consider loss, social change and the long-lasting impact of inequitable power distribution. In 2023 Sovay was commissioned by Hospital Rooms to make a new permanent commission for Longreach House, Cornwall Hospitals Trust.
Between 2022-25, Sovay delivered 'MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh' a multi-platform project that explored contemporary Cornish cultural identity and its relationship with heritage, land, and extraction industries. 'MESKLA' was funded by Arts Council England, Feast and Historic England and encompassed new sculpture and film, workshops and podcasts.
Sovay has a long standing commitment to artist-led activity, including via co-running 'Agile Structures' (2020 - 2025) with artist Sara Bowler. Agile Structures supported artists to respond to the changing landscape of the arts sector in the wake of Brexit and Covid 19; including exchanges, exhibitions, publications and symposia.
REVIEWS - relating to my work and projects
That’s Entertainment, by Sacha Waldron for The Skinny, review of Entertainment Suite in Oculist Witnesses, The Harris, Preston
Oculist Witnesses review by Sam Pickett for Corridor 8
Vanishing Point by Laura McLean Ferris for Oculist Witnesses
An Artist-Led Adventure, an article by Stephen Palmer for a-n, about Molluscs Hunt Wizards
My practice spans sculpture, drawing, film, broadcasting, research and social learning situations.
My work reviews and questions systems and structures of power, challenging us to claim agency and responsibility for the roles we play in the ecosystems we occupy. I aim to bring people and ideas together to foster responses of sensitive imagination and empowerment, and acknowledge the mess, tensions and challenges of many of our lives.
My work is rooted in my lived experience of otherness - with poverty, precarity, neurodivergence, trauma and minority culture influencing the work I make.
My artworks are multi-faceted - drawings or prints may sit alongside sculptures cast in metal or wrapped in cloth; components of acrylic and clay may balance, while symbols and forms layer through paint, film or text. These fragments work together to generate whole supportive structures.
BIOGRAPHY
Sovay Berriman is an artist working for 25+ years, based in Cornwall, UK.
Sovay studied sculpture at RCA, London. From 2023-24 she was the a-n Clore Visual Art Fellow, with a secondment with National Theatre Scotland and a published outcome, 'ReWilding Arts Leadership'.
In 2025 Sovay presented 'Catching Copper' a new exhibition at East Pool Mine in partnership with The National Trust drawing upon personal experience and memories to consider loss, social change and the long-lasting impact of inequitable power distribution. In 2023 Sovay was commissioned by Hospital Rooms to make a new permanent commission for Longreach House, Cornwall Hospitals Trust.
Between 2022-25, Sovay delivered 'MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh' a multi-platform project that explored contemporary Cornish cultural identity and its relationship with heritage, land, and extraction industries. 'MESKLA' was funded by Arts Council England, Feast and Historic England and encompassed new sculpture and film, workshops and podcasts.
Sovay has a long standing commitment to artist-led activity, including via co-running 'Agile Structures' (2020 - 2025) with artist Sara Bowler. Agile Structures supported artists to respond to the changing landscape of the arts sector in the wake of Brexit and Covid 19; including exchanges, exhibitions, publications and symposia.
REVIEWS - relating to my work and projects
That’s Entertainment, by Sacha Waldron for The Skinny, review of Entertainment Suite in Oculist Witnesses, The Harris, Preston
Oculist Witnesses review by Sam Pickett for Corridor 8
Vanishing Point by Laura McLean Ferris for Oculist Witnesses
An Artist-Led Adventure, an article by Stephen Palmer for a-n, about Molluscs Hunt Wizards
L-R: Recording a MESKLA podcast, photo credit Joe Blackman; Recording an episode of the Empire Lines podcast with (L-R): Jelena Sofronijevic and Marie-Anne McQuay.
All work copyright the artist