Sophie Hoyle, Excoriate, 2019 (installation view), BALTIC 39, Newcastle. Photos: Colin Davison. © 2019 BALTIC

Multi-channel video installation developed during the 2019 Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

Part of The Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary Shortlist Exhibition 2019 with Leah Clements, Laura Lulika and Hang Linton, Amy Rosa, Romily Alice Walden.



Excoriate (2019) explores embodied experiences of chronic illness and attempts to reclaim bodily autonomy from biomedical institutions, while considering different processes of healing.

It includes footage shot at the Comfrey Project in Gateshead – a community garden and centre that offers horticultural therapy for refugees and people seeking asylum, and a DIY biohacking lab with queer performance collective Quimera Rosa. Other footage includes drawings onto the artist’s skin, used medical ephemera, and methods for overcoming self-harming behaviours, including compulsive skin picking i.e. Dermatillomania or Excoriation Disorder. Custom-made light-boxes display photographs and drawings based on kidney dissections, referring to the artist having Chronic Kidney Disease.

The soundtrack is composed of binaural beats including beta and theta waves, used to treat anxiety and trauma and sleep disorders through ‘neuroacoustics’.