Sophie Paul (she/her, b. 1998) is a designer and writer based across London and Oxfordshire. Her work triangulates between critical theory, trashiness, and eroticisms, with an interest in feminist materiality.
Her MA thesis, Notes Towards a Theory for Iridescence was awarded the Royal College of Art Writing Prize for 2022. Her writing is held at Van Gough House, Poor House Reading Rooms and Tate Archive, and has been published by Pilot Press, Passe Avant, PlusX, BOMB Magazine, Fortified, and others. She has written for live voice with Montez Radio, Repeater, Export Radio, and in association with Pitt Rivers, Oxford. She has exhibited at MAC Birmingham, Lunchtime Gallery, and LUCKY as part of Kunstverein München’s interdisciplinary artists residency on the Ammersee.
Alongside Kaiya Waerea, she is one half of Sticky Fingers Publishing, an intra-dependant publisher based in London, publishing experimental feminist, queer, crip, non-fiction.
︎︎︎ Writing Portfolio
︎︎︎ @theunofficialsoupdragon
︎︎︎ sophieanna15@gmail.com
Sophie Paul (she/her, b. 1998) is a designer and writer based across London and Oxfordshire. Working with experimental writing, collaborative publishing and performance, her interests intersect critical theory, trashiness, and eroticisms. She has written for radio and live voice, run writing and zine making workshops and staged interventionist performances at various sites around London, introducing alternative dialogues around the body as sites for interruption and excess.
Her thesis, Notes Towards a Theory for Iridescence uses the qualities of iridescence to propose an affective re-writing of the ways girlhood and iridescence intra-act. This piece was awarded the 2022 RCA Writing Prize.
Alongside Kaiya Waerea, she is one half of Sticky Fingers Publishing, an intra-dependant publisher based in London, publishing experimental feminist, queer, crip, non-fiction.
She is currently a resident at Peripheral Alliances at the Ammersee, a cooperation between Kunstverein München and Euroboden.
︎︎︎ sophieanna15@gmail.com
︎︎︎ @theunofficialsoupdragon
︎︎︎ RCA2022
01 STICKY FINGERS PUBLISHING
Sticky Fingers is an intra-dependant publisher based in London. It consists of designers and writers Kaiya Waerea (she/her) & Sophie Paul (she/her).
Sticky Fingers are feminist, crip, queer led, and publish works that are interested in the sensuality of knowledge production, and invested in alternative publishing pedagogies.
Sticky Fingers is an intra-dependant publisher based in London. It consists of designers and writers Kaiya Waerea (she/her) & Sophie Paul (she/her).
Sticky Fingers are feminist, crip, queer led, and publish works that are interested in the sensuality of knowledge production, and invested in alternative publishing pedagogies.
2019 - Ongoing
02 MOMENTS OF CLARITY
Moments of Clarity is an extended piece of experimental non-fiction produced whilst during a residency in Inning with Künstverein Munchen (to be published by KM.) Readings took place as part of a solo show in August and a group show in September 2022 at Lucky (München) in collaboration withKünstverein Munchen.
Following the conceit of the artists residency, it is a treatise on not-writing, following thoughts on an anti-capital residency model, kitchen-gardens, and Clarice Lispector’s question: ‘what is the colour of spatial infinity?’
Moments of Clarity is an extended piece of experimental non-fiction produced whilst during a residency in Inning with Künstverein Munchen (to be published by KM.) Readings took place as part of a solo show in August and a group show in September 2022 at Lucky (München) in collaboration withKünstverein Munchen.
Following the conceit of the artists residency, it is a treatise on not-writing, following thoughts on an anti-capital residency model, kitchen-gardens, and Clarice Lispector’s question: ‘what is the colour of spatial infinity?’
2022
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04 WILD STONE
Wild Stone was a collaboration between Lesley Sharpe, Melanie Jackson, Sara Binadwan, Leonie Cameron, Helen Clarke, Lucy Ellerton, Ellie Hoskyns-Abrahall, Yaze Huang, Sophie Paul, Seongeun Lee, Tingting Lou, Kathryn Maguire, Manyu Qi, Haoying Qian, Wenyi Qian, Edward Rollitt, and Shuochun Xiang with a foreword by curator and writer Sophie J Williamson and an introduction to the archive by Tate Archivist Darragh O’Donoghue
Wild Stone was a collaboration between Lesley Sharpe, Melanie Jackson, Sara Binadwan, Leonie Cameron, Helen Clarke, Lucy Ellerton, Ellie Hoskyns-Abrahall, Yaze Huang, Sophie Paul, Seongeun Lee, Tingting Lou, Kathryn Maguire, Manyu Qi, Haoying Qian, Wenyi Qian, Edward Rollitt, and Shuochun Xiang with a foreword by curator and writer Sophie J Williamson and an introduction to the archive by Tate Archivist Darragh O’Donoghue
2022
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05 ARC MAGAZINE: PROXYEROTICS
The 21st issue of the long running and internationally distrubuted RCA student magazine, ARC.
Proxyerotics is a newly coined term, aknowledging a shifted and stilted state of reality – the buffering, the incomplete, the unstable, yet still intimate.
ARC (formally ARK) is a student-led publication that began in 2004 following a long-hiatus of the original independent ARK magazine that ran from 1950 to 1978. It exists to provide a platform for the RCA’s students, staff and alumni.
The 21st issue of the long running and internationally distrubuted RCA student magazine, ARC.
Proxyerotics is a newly coined term, aknowledging a shifted and stilted state of reality – the buffering, the incomplete, the unstable, yet still intimate.
ARC (formally ARK) is a student-led publication that began in 2004 following a long-hiatus of the original independent ARK magazine that ran from 1950 to 1978. It exists to provide a platform for the RCA’s students, staff and alumni.
2021
📺
06 JUST SPEAK NEARBY
Audio Project with the Pitt Rivers Musueum Photographic Archives, Oxford. Through a 10 minute audio piece, the photographic archive is translated into an unstable alamnac, a putrid public programme, or a backwards A-Z. Here, an image of a turf sundial from 1909 is used to create an alternate time-scape that manipulates light and shadow.
2021
🌞️
07 NEVER CRY / COLD NOODLES
The Rom-Com Re-Writing Cafe was a collective attempt to rewrite PS, I Love You, through a series of filthy and undisciplined re-writing workshops took place under the cover of night during lockdown 1.
Using rapid response rewriting exercises, a group of brave and lonely lovers gathered over youtube livestream and a shared google doc, to generate alternative scripts that think through the messy and excessive body in pop culture.
<< NSFW >>
The Rom-Com Re-Writing Cafe was a collective attempt to rewrite PS, I Love You, through a series of filthy and undisciplined re-writing workshops took place under the cover of night during lockdown 1.
Using rapid response rewriting exercises, a group of brave and lonely lovers gathered over youtube livestream and a shared google doc, to generate alternative scripts that think through the messy and excessive body in pop culture.
<< NSFW >>
2020
💋️
08 HEY LOOK, SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
A collection of written outputs from 80 graduating students from Goldsmiths BA Design, and 10 contributions from tutors responding to a collectively written curational statement.
A collection of written outputs from 80 graduating students from Goldsmiths BA Design, and 10 contributions from tutors responding to a collectively written curational statement.
2020
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09 HOW. DO. WE. REANIMATE. THESE. DEAD. BUGS
A double-ended intervention based within the Natural History Museum, London, using speculation, chat-bots and crusing to reimagine the Museum’s darkest corners, deepest holes and steamiest archival secrets.
A double-ended intervention based within the Natural History Museum, London, using speculation, chat-bots and crusing to reimagine the Museum’s darkest corners, deepest holes and steamiest archival secrets.
2019
🐛️
00 WRITING BITS
girls/ bodies/ aesthetics/ image/ place/ surface/ style/ futurity/ interiors/ iridescence/ material/ texture/ shimmer/ slit/ slime/ ice/ plastic/ slugs/ worms/ mould/ pleasure/ pop/ trash/ erotics/ love/ care/ resistance/
Read more here, too
girls/ bodies/ aesthetics/ image/ place/ surface/ style/ futurity/ interiors/ iridescence/ material/ texture/ shimmer/ slit/ slime/ ice/ plastic/ slugs/ worms/ mould/ pleasure/ pop/ trash/ erotics/ love/ care/ resistance/
Read more here, too
Ongoing