Sophie Mei Birkin
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Biomatter Submersion (2023) is a series of illuminated membranes of biomatter. The works explore material transformation and interaction and take inspiration from rivers, skylights, water tanks, bus stop shelters- places where organic matter grows, passes through or settles in relation to water.
The suspended foraged biomatter is fixed in bio-resin, held in a moment of time, while speaking to the afterlife of materials and how matter flows into larger collective bodies of water. The lightboxes create this sense of submersion, the biomatter seeming back within, or passing through, a watery body. Material exploration is central to Sophie Mei’s work particularly how materials interact to create a psychophysical response. She investigates the generative potential in the transformation of matter through a variety of material processes such as growing salt crystals and exploring amorphous and decomposing substances.
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Sophie Mei Birkin (b.1995) is a London based artist with a multimedia practice. She has recently exhibited work at The Split Gallery, Barbican Cinema, Collective Ending HQ, The Artist Room Gallery, Projektraum Claas Reiss and Saatchi Gallery. Sophie Mei is an Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London (UAL). In 2019 Sophie Mei co-founded badweather an interdisciplinary architecture and scenography collective. Sophie Mei graduated in 2021 from MA Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she was awarded the Euan Uglow Scholarship and an Emerging Artist Award by Sarabande Foundation.