SARAH HOPPER
Fragility and impermanence are prerequisites of being human. Through modular works that can be deconstructed and reconstructed in different arrangements I’m developing pieces that have a scientific language of accuracy but there’s no plan or reliable way to remember the form once it’s dismantled. They look concrete but are fragile, relying on the ‘rules’ of physics without an understanding of the science - there’s a playful circularity between how it appears and what it is. Chance and ‘hazard’ play a part in the work - it’s temporary and vulnerable. Exploring various joining methods such as magnetism, the pieces are held together in tension somewhere between attraction and repulsion. Measurement is addressed with the literal use of rulers exploring themes of control, complicity and judgement. Rhythm and repetition are key themes running through the work.
The objects or site sympathetic works are flexible and can be re-imagined or repositioned to facilitate a continually evolving conversation with both the geographical and psychological spaces they occupy. Combining readymades with sculptural metallic elements and sometimes concealed audio via electrical transducers, the work has an inner electric energy. This audio from field or voice recordings integrated within the work combines the ephemeral with the physical. Mining the subconscious via the mechanisms of memory through dream recall and remembered experiences reveals how trauma is reflected in my own use of words as well as the words of those who I interview. Themes of loss, longing and hope as well as violence are universally understood bridging the gap between the work and the listener. Making the invisible audible, bringing fragments of experiences together in a rhythmic form, investigating patterns of language reinforcing the power of repetition to influence our behaviours. The dynamic that arises from listening encourages an engagement with internal subconscious dialogues and places the viewer in a bodily sensorial space.
Installation at The Cookhouse Gallery, London.
Mild steel, magnets, brass, glass flasks, tapered welding gauges, copper nugget, raw malachite, meteorite and audio transducers.
(2000mm x 800mm x 800mm)
Mild steel, magnets, tapered welding gauges
Mild steel, magnets, brass, glass flasks, tapered welding gauges, copper nugget, raw malachite, meteorite and audio transducers.
Mild steel, magnets, tapered welding gauges, beeswax candle
Mild steel, magnets, tapered welding gauges
Installation view: mild steel, rubber tubing, glass, brass rod, magnets, motor, sweeping brush, video monitor, headphones, found objects.
2025, Lewisham Arthouse, Maybe We can Tangle and Reform
2024, The Cookhouse Gallery, London
Reinforcing the rule
40 steel rulers, magnets, steel pulleys, brass.
2025, Lewisham Arthouse, Maybe We can Tangle and Reform
2024, The Cookhouse Gallery, London
From another side audio piece (5.28mins)
The Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Art, London, 2025
Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2025
Steel, brass, man’s suit, metal bathroom cabinets, audio transducers.
Beloved (2023)
17 years ago after nursing his wife through cancer to her death my brother descended into trauma and depression. Ten months after her death he travelled to Russia in secret and married a Russian girl and together they came back to the UK.
In the spring of 2024 I interviewed my brother about his experience which he’d never spoken about in any detail until that time.
This site sensitive sound installation was the result of this interview. The poetry, vulnerability and humanity expressed through his storytelling enabled me to give voice to his previously hidden experience. I had thought this would be an exploration into the international politics of the institution of marriage as a means to cross international borders but it’s a piece about loneliness, loss and grief.
Curriculum Vitae
EXHIBITIONS
2025 GROUP ‘MAYBE WE CAN TANGLE AND REFORM’ Pistil Collective
Lewisham Arthouse, London, UK
2025 GROUP ‘UNBOX’ The Cookhouse Gallery
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2025 GROUP ‘REALITY CHECK’ Collaboration with AVA, Ljubljana
Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubljana
The Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP ‘8’ The Cookhouse Gallery
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP ADEMA COLLABORATION The Cookhouse Gallery
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP THE LITTLE SHOW The Cookhouse Gallery
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER The Cookhouse Gallery
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP DEPARTURE LOUNGE The Cookhouse Gallery
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP FINAL GRADUATE DIPLOMA SHOW
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2024 GROUP REIMAGINED RUINS
Safehouse 1 and 2, Peckham, London, UK
2024 GROUP HARMONY IN CHAOS
The Triangle, Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2023 GROUP DIPLARK
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
COLLABORATIVE INSTALLATIONS
2019 GROUP TÓNANDI XR experience
Form Festival, Arcasanti, Arizona, USA
2019 GROUP TÓNANDI XR experience
Venice Biennale VR Island, Venice, Italy
2019 THE RECORDING (MATTHEW HERBERT)
Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Germany
Live set and live album design
2016 GROUP THE CHORUS (MATTHEW HERBERT)
Wellcome Collection, London, UK
Installation set design
2012 CEMETERY SOUND INSTALLATION
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, USA
Sarah Hopper and Matthew Herbert
LIVE SHOW ART DIRECTION
2022- PRESENT SIGUR RÓS World Tour
2023 GALYA BISENGALIEVA ICA, London, UK
2020 GALYA BISENGALIEVA Mini Tour
2016-2017 SIGUR RÓS World Tour
2012 - 2013 SIGUR RÓS World Tour
2010 JÓNSI World Tour
THEATRE DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE
2013 THE HUSH
The Shed, THe National Theatre, London, UK
FILM
2023 JUBLIEE_V8
4mins
2011 KLIPPA
5.28mins
2010 - PRESENT
TRUSTEE FOR THE CHARITY: THE HOUSE OF FAIRYTALES