Sophie Beresford

Sophie Beresford is a Sunderland-based artist who uses her considerable creative imagination to visually represent what she calls “council estate culture”. 

Key to Sophie’s practice is an overarching theme of regional pride, her work espouses the benefits that culture in the wider sense can have on people. “My experience of my own culture is that we have no time for creativity because we are supposed to get on with getting a ‘proper job’ and working full time for a pittance doing some shit we have no interest in to survive. There is so much creativity in people it is a travesty to see it being locked away, so I’m interested in reconnecting people to their creativity and dreams and supporting them to put it/them into action.”

The visual element of the exhibition takes influence from the use of symbolism used to represent culture’s visual language, from Adidas stripes to the Lacoste crocodile emblem and the tree of life used on Timberland shoes. “Expect lots of velvet, sportswear and trippy shizzle and geometry.”