p l a c e / h o l d e r
a virtual catalogue of art and poetry
Central to Sophie Brenneman's visual and written work is the concept of place, both as a state of mind and as a physical experience.
Born in southern Mississippi but raised in rural Pennsylvania, her drawings serve as stand-ins — placeholders — embodying the memories, moments, and spaces she can no longer physically revisit.
An identical twin, Sophie’s practice is deeply rooted in the act of noticing subtle distinctions everywhere— in the poetic dialog between household objects, in the way a body moves through and shares its space with another, in how the air of north and south hold and reflect their light in specific ways. Sophie’s work renders a sense of place that is as real as it is remembered, distilled from the impressions left on her by the spaces she once moved through, and by the people who shared those spaces with her.
Blending the tangible with the ethereal, the recognizable with the surreal, her drawings and poetry become a (literal) paper trail; physically holding a place in time for the moments, faces, states, and places she once called home.
