RESUME TEDDY PRATT (b. 1995)

Teddy Pratt is a Swiss and Sierra Leonean artist based in Bern whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting and sculpture. At the core of his work lies an inquiry into cultural memory, mythology, and the structures (both material and ideological) hat shape contemporary identity. Pratt approaches art as an open system of meaning: interpretation, in his view, ultimately resides with the beholder. His works are conceived as frameworks for reflection rather than fixed narratives, inviting audiences to negotiate their own relationship to form, history, and symbolism.

Pratt’s artistic vision engages global discourses on culture, politics, and social transformation. He examines how dominant Western cultural theories have historically positioned themselves in relation to other knowledge systems, and how these hierarchies continue to inform aesthetic and institutional frameworks. Through this lens, his work probes alternative possibilities of human creativity, often drawing on mythological references and speculative thinking that suggest realities extending beyond singular cultural or cosmological viewpoints.

Material experimentation is central to his practice. Working with textiles saturated in adhesive and draped over constructed supports, Pratt transforms flexible fabric into rigid, architectonic forms. This process, defined by controlled surface tension, gravity, and chemical reaction, creates objects that oscillate between softness and solidity, transience and permanence. The resulting sculptural works possess a restrained, often monochromatic palette that emphasizes structure, contour, and spatial presence. In parallel, his painting practice incorporates distinct patterns, layered surfaces, and mixed media elements, forging conceptual connections between disparate materials.

Archival material and historical memory serve as recurring points of departure. Pratt reinterprets fragments of cultural narratives through abstraction and material transformation, allowing sculptural form to become a site of negotiation between past and present. His works often suggest thresholds or transitional states, moments where matter shifts character and meaning remains suspended.

He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2023, he completed a residency at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, further deepening his engagement with intercultural dialogue and material histories. His work has been presented internationally, including at the Dakar Biennale OFF and at “Cantonale Berne Jura,” the joint contemporary art exhibition of the cantons of Bern and Jura.

Through his hybrid practice, Teddy Pratt articulates a language of form that bridges sculpture and painting, memory and speculation, material experimentation and conceptual inquiry.