Sophie J Williamson

United Kingdom

Sophie J Williamson is a curator and writer based in London. Since 2013, as Programme Curator (Exhibitions) at Camden Arts Centre, she has delivered a world-class programme of exhibitions, residencies and events: presenting major exhibitions of internationally acclaimed artists, i.e Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon, Moyra Davey, Ben Rivers and Beatrice Gibson; repositioning influential yet overlooked artists (i.e. Geta Bratescu, Themersons, Vivian Suter); and an extensive commissioning programme, producing major by early and mid-career artists. From 2009–13, she was part of the inaugural team at Raven Row, establishing it as one of London’s most critically acclaimed space, with a programme of major survey shows, new commissions, publications, residencies and events. She previously worked extensively internationally – both in institutions and major projects, such as Singapore Biennale (2006), Venice Biennale (2007) and Asia Manchester Triennial (2008). Her writing appears in frieze, Art Monthly and Aesthetica. She was Gasworks Curatorial Fellow (2016) and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Curatorial Fellow (2020). Her recent anthology, Translation (Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press) brings together writings by artists, poets, authors and theorists to reflect on the urgency of building empathy in an era of global turmoil. She is currently on a year-long sabbatical developing this research further to encapsulate dialogue, reemergence and palintropic turning of matter within deep-time.

During her stay in Turkey, Sophie’s research focused on the intersection of geology and communication: reading rock strata and geological formations as scores to understand previous ecologies and ways of being. A particular focus for her research in Turkey was conducted around human's social development within and around geological landscapes – such as the habitations of Cappadocia and the myths and legends of Pamukkale – where millions of years of natural phenomena merge with human invention. Her research will also turn to the movement of human cultures, exploring the migrations of languages and narratives that meld and merge throughout Turkey’s history and present day. Through the silences embedded in geological notation and throughout human histories, her research will pose questions of how we might nurture empathetic dialogues over deep-time, both with the past and into the future.