My name is Sofia Bicego, I am a sculptor from Warren, Michigan and currently working in Detroit. I’ve been carving stone since 2019, and I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies in 2022. I am asking for financial support so I can participate in the Detroit-Zimbabwe Material Research Residency, facilitated by the Zimbabwe Cultural Center Detroit. The funds will help cover my residency fee, transportation, and allow me to ship stone back to the States at the end of the trip.

During this three-week residency, I will travel with my mentor, Chido Johnson, and other artists, to Zimbabwe. There we will work closely with Zimbabwean artists, sharing our practices and learning from one another. It is an opportunity for me to grow my practice and skillset in stone carving and paint-making, while connecting with new peers and institutions I otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to work with.

Since 2022, I have been creating a body of work that investigates stone as material, process, body, and memory. I create carvings using different types and colors of stone, then make paint out of the discarded material. I approach carving stone as the body and as memory. Stone is a body that physically loses itself by my hand; stone is violently removed, those scars then gently erased. In reciprocity, I gather the stone’s lost mass, crush and grind it down to pigment, mull it into paint, and paint the stone’s portrait. By using the stone in its entirety, I attempt to pay respect to the carving process and material sacrifice, honoring what is now and what once was. Traveling to Zimbabwe and participating in the Material Research Residency will further my research in this body of work.

Thank you for reading and for supporting growth in my art practice.