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.
Sovay studied sculpture at RCA, London. From 2023-24 she was the Clore Visual Art Fellow, with a secondment with National Theatre Scotland and a published outcome, 'ReWilding Arts Leadership'.
In 2025 she 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 she 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.
TEXTS & INTERVIEWS - relating to my work and projects
2024 'How was it for You?, Sovay Berriman for a-n The Artists’ Information Company
ReWilding Arts Leadership, Sovay Berriman a provocation for Clore Fellowship 23/24
Thinking & Practise on the 10 year Anniversary of the Recognition of the Cornish as a National Minority , by Sovay Berriman
Sovay Berriman on Cornwall, Cornish identity, Eek! and Meskla, by Rupert White for Art Cornwall
Days out in a Renault Twingo, by Joanne Tatham
Everyday Constellations, an essay by Mary Paterson, for Synethsia, a Cultivator Cornwall and University of Plymouth project.
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
Drawing as Research, with Tate Learning
An Artist-Led Adventure, an article by Stephen Palmer for a-n, about Molluscs Hunt Wizards
Mildly Radical, Liz Rowe for Dense Cluster at Bristol Diving School.
AUDIO - talks and in-conversations
MIAAW Podcast - talking about Kernowek and ReWilding Arts Leadership
Dreadnought South West, a conversation between Sovay Berriman and Josie Sutcliffe at Kresen Kernow, June 2023. This recording does not include the open discussion that followed Sovay & Josie’s conversation.
The Lock-in with Natalie Rigby - Sovay & Natalie talk about growing up in Cornwall, othering, neurodivergence, air-guitaring mums and inspirational nieces.
Artonomics: Supporting a Multifaceted Practice - Sovay Berriman & Lucy Harrison interviewed by Cathy Lomax for the Out of Space podcast
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.
Sovay studied sculpture at RCA, London. From 2023-24 she was the Clore Visual Art Fellow, with a secondment with National Theatre Scotland and a published outcome, 'ReWilding Arts Leadership'.
In 2025 she 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 she 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.
TEXTS & INTERVIEWS - relating to my work and projects
2024 'How was it for You?, Sovay Berriman for a-n The Artists’ Information Company
ReWilding Arts Leadership, Sovay Berriman a provocation for Clore Fellowship 23/24
Thinking & Practise on the 10 year Anniversary of the Recognition of the Cornish as a National Minority , by Sovay Berriman
Sovay Berriman on Cornwall, Cornish identity, Eek! and Meskla, by Rupert White for Art Cornwall
Days out in a Renault Twingo, by Joanne Tatham
Everyday Constellations, an essay by Mary Paterson, for Synethsia, a Cultivator Cornwall and University of Plymouth project.
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
Drawing as Research, with Tate Learning
An Artist-Led Adventure, an article by Stephen Palmer for a-n, about Molluscs Hunt Wizards
Mildly Radical, Liz Rowe for Dense Cluster at Bristol Diving School.
AUDIO - talks and in-conversations
MIAAW Podcast - talking about Kernowek and ReWilding Arts Leadership
Dreadnought South West, a conversation between Sovay Berriman and Josie Sutcliffe at Kresen Kernow, June 2023. This recording does not include the open discussion that followed Sovay & Josie’s conversation.
The Lock-in with Natalie Rigby - Sovay & Natalie talk about growing up in Cornwall, othering, neurodivergence, air-guitaring mums and inspirational nieces.
Artonomics: Supporting a Multifaceted Practice - Sovay Berriman & Lucy Harrison interviewed by Cathy Lomax for the Out of Space podcast
L-R: Recording a MESKLA podcast, photo credit Joe Blackman; Visiting lecturer presentation for Falmouth University, talking through a collaborative project with Dr Shelley Trower;
All work copyright the artist