The Thing That Once Was the Thing
is Still Here 2020-2021
This is a new series of works by Sophie Gough using hand-made paper fragments, collected plant fibres and recycled paper from project proposal archives and sculptural imaginings that have not yet become. This project stems from a personal and intuitive engagement over the last year reflecting on culture, nature and time.
Papermaking is a process I first began exploring whilst on a residency in Glengarriff during the country’s first national lockdown in March 2020. During that uncertain time, it became a meditative activity alongside daily walks through which I could establish moments of calm and a sense of control. West cork boasts of one of the most bio-diverse regions in Ireland and it was here where the majority of the plant fibres used in these works grew and were collected. Anchored in the intimacy of the everyday, the quintessential industrial material, these paper collages emit natural tones from plants that visually characterize the quality of the land from which they came..
Driven by my interest in Japanese philosophies and fiber making traditions, these works explore and manipulate the tactile paper making process with my attention focused on it’s strong materiality, subtly exaggerating the tears, folds, colour bleeds and tensile variety of pulps. Playful and experimental at its core the process is a constant reconfiguration of aesthetic compositions with line, colour, texture, surface, visual weight and form becoming an exciting task prior to securing the fragments in a new disposition.
Paper is a technology that despite sustainability efforts still continues to exist. It lingers still in our everyday as necessity, just like our deep desire to remain connected with nature. Fundamentally, these works do not intend to prioritize culture over nature but rather subtly seek a mediation on all the fibers that surround us, asking the viewer to look slowly, closely and to integrate a greater consciousness back into our material cultural practices and it’s expanded landscape.
All works are for sale. Please contact the artist on
By phone on 0876112586 or by email s.nicola.gough@gmail.com
Follow on Instagram @sophiegough4
Prices of works including bespoke frames ranging from :
€500-€550
37.5cm x 49cm x 3cm (smaller format pink and blue frames)
€700- €900
60cm x 80cm x 5.5cm (medium to larger format)