Shona Neary / Sketchy Shona
A finished collection moving from drawings into mixed-media sculpture, formed through somatic processing of physical and mental feelings, depression and autoimmune conditions.
A collection begins in Berlin
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies began in Berlin in January 2026 and is now a finished collection. It moves across drawings and mixed-media sculptures, bringing repeated forms into a sustained body of work.
The name comes from the recurring image at the centre: broken, bloody teeth, bodies that fragment, and forms carrying damage and persistence at once. The sculptures were shown at THE FLOOR launch in January 2026.
What the body carries
For years I have had repeating, never-ending visions, mostly as dreams, of broken, bloody teeth falling from my head and coming all at once into my hands. In reality, I have also struggled with an autoimmune disease. At times it affects my body and mind and can make me feel out of control, even on a cellular and DNA level.
This is my somatic process for physical and mental feelings, including depression and autoimmune conditions. Stress, death, health and the attempt to regain control through making all entered this work. The sculptures are not illustrations of those experiences; they are where those pressures became physical.
Drawings acquire weight
The work started as drawings and expanded into small mixed-media sculptures. Moving from paper into objects allowed the forms to take on weight, surface and a physical presence that the drawing could only suggest.
The white and black objects are related without being identical. Their differences in scale, posture and surface matter as much as their repetition. A group can behave like a body while still containing individual damage and variation.
A finished collection
The finished collection holds one visual question across drawing and object. Moving from paper into sculpture gave the forms weight, surface and a physical presence that the drawings could only suggest.
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies is complete as a collection, with recurring forms moving between physical and mental feeling, depression and autoimmune conditions.
Images from this journal record
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / drawing / body and bone
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / drawing / profile and weight
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / sculpture / white and black forms
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / sculpture / white forms
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / sculpture / black forms
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / sculpture / related forms
Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies: a finished collection / project statement / sculpture
Credits
- Original Sketchy Shona record based on supplied Broken Teeth & Rotten Bodies documentation and statement text.