The title of this work references Emily Dickinson’s poem, written in 1862

One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted—
One need not be a House —
The Brain has Corridors — surpassing
Material Place —

Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting
External Ghost
Than its interior Confronting —
That Cooler Host.

Far safer, through an Abbey gallop,
The Stones a’chase —
Than Unarmed, one’s a’self encounter —
In lonesome Place —

Ourself behind ourself, concealed —
Should startle most —
Assassin hid in our Apartment
Be Horror’s least.

The Body — borrows a Revolver —
He bolts the Door —
O’erlooking a superior spectre —
Or More —

My work

I am a painter, sculptor and printmaker, living and working in London. My work is largely figurative, based on observation and reworked through imagination and memory.  Currently, I am working in large scale monotypes, plaster, bronze, clay, paper and fabric sculptures.

In my most recent work, I am exploring haunting, loss, the power of the relic.  I see art as a form of relic, with layered and contested meanings over time and I am interested in how the work I make is invested with meaning both by the viewer, and the interaction with other work, as a form of imitation, transformation or erasure. For me, haunting and loss, what is absent, what is missing, speaks poetically to both historic and contemporary experience of silenced voices and stories.

@soniathomasart

www.soniathomasart.com