First recipient of the Anthony Caro Sculpture Prize 2023. Sophie Lloyd's primary medium is sculpture, in which she manipulates sugar – particularly fondant icing – to explore how we consume and how we are consumed in turn. Her works resemble stained glass windows, small in size, referencing fairground caricatures and renaissance sugar sculptures. They represent temporality and the calculated self that is portrayed in entertainment.
Artist statement
My work is about things we consume and how they consume us. The sculptures with their facade of stained-glass reference fairground scams, characters of entertainment, and sugar sculptures of renaissance banquets. As a crowd of sugar sculptures, they line up, mouths open, awaiting their final blow while the dramatics of degrading sugar plays out. The work critiques the controlling grip of consumerism whilst exploring the tipping willingness of the consumer to let it take hold.