Carol Sommer Durham, United Kingdom
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I am a visual artist based in the North East of England. I use film, found objects, installation, text and social media in attempts to engage with the discourses of literature and literary criticism, especially in response to the representation of women.

My practice is situated within the aesthetic context of conceptual writing and includes performance readings in the UK and abroad, video screenings and an Instagram account. I am the author of 'Cartography for Girls, an A - Z of Orientations identified within the Novels of Iris Murdoch', and I'm interested in the contemporary relevance of Iris Murdoch's writing about women's experience and her ideas about classification.

Artwork

@cartography_for_girls, Instagram meme, 2019

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Cartography for Girls An A-Z of Orientations Identified within the Novels of Iris Murdoch, Book, 2016

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From One To The Other, Single Channel Video, 2015

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The Sea, The Sea, Single Channel Video, 2018

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I Think I'm Happy, She Thought, But Am I Real?, Postcard design, 2019

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This Has Nothing To Do With Easter, Video, 2021

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Projects and exhibitions

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Sometimes she tried to think about painting

06/08/2022 — 14/08/2022

A new film exploring the empowering potential of the moving image in relation to Iris Murdoch's thinking about Eros, a force which might be productively harnessed in the act of painting.

36 Gallery, Newcastle Details

Let Us Eat Cake Part 3

08/03/2022

The video is a collation of Instagram posts shared @cartography_for_girls, between March 2020 and March 2022. They respond to Iris Murdoch's fictional writing about women's experience and to the lockdowns via the representation of women in film.

Basecamp Boro, Middlesbrough Details

Will The Real Iris Murdoch Please Stand Up?

03/03/2022 — 03/07/2022

Through a series of workshops at the Iris Murdoch Archive, Kingston University, and an online call out on social media, ‘Will The Real Iris Murdoch Please Stand Up?’ explored the construction of image and identity through the twentieth century universe of Iris Murdoch and twenty-first century Instagram. In 2016 I made a book,...

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Iris Murdoch Archives, Kingston University, Kingston Details

The Summer One, Hun North East

24/05/2019

Hit The Bar, Middlesbrough Details

I Think I'm Happy, She Thought, But Am I Real?

23/05/2019

Gas Contemporary, North Shields Details

Reading As Art

27/08/2016 — 19/11/2016

Curated by Simon Morris

Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Gallery, Bury Details
Interested in
Artist TalkCompetitionConferenceExhibitionJournal/PublicationMentoringParticipatory projectResidencyWorkshop
Media
Art writingArtists’ booksFilm / VideoInstallationInternetPhotographySoundText
Other keywords
ExperimentalFeminismIdentity