Eden Sweeney (Edie) is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily across poetry, photography and digital drawing. Sweeney's practice employs performative elements through a recurring character who is physically always depicted as herself, yet exists within fictional narratives that shift with each project. Through this form of expression, I have been able to depict myself in exaggerated, vulnerable and often confronting narratives. Although the subject is visually autobiographical, Sweeney approaches her as a constructed persona rather than a direct self-portrait, referring to her in the third person and treating her as an alter ego moving through different narrative worlds. This alter ego has developed over ten years, becoming an integral part of her practice.

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Sweeney curates scenarios which integrate humour, irony, discomfort and vulnerability while exploring recurring themes of obsession, sex and the mundane. Sweeney's interests lie in the tension between viewers pitying her alter ego to then recognising aspects of themselves within her story. Sweeney aims to confront the private ongoings behind closed doors that feel both personal and universally resonant, something viewers can potentially familiarise with. This is why her bed is a recurring motif.

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Sweeney's fascination with the bed stems from its duality as both a universal yet individual experience – a common yet deeply private space, where we spend a significant amount of time holding traces of memory, routine, comfort, illness, loneliness and intimacy. The unmade bed, along with personal items evokes familiarity and emotional associations tied to our own private spaces. Living with OCD, Sweeney views her bed as sacred, which sparked a fascination in the textures and tones formed in the linens, becoming a recurring visual language. The process is exceptionally time consuming, where Sweeney primarily uses the trackpad on her laptop. The hyper-detailed nature of the work can be physically and mentally strenuous. While the repetitive process can be therapeutic, it can also create an environment for OCD thoughts to fester, mirroring the obsessive and ritualistic tendencies embedded within the subject matter itself.

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Sweeney's latest project and installation Who’s your baby? was curated with the intention of creating an immersive atmosphere, transforming the exhibition space into an extension of her bedroom. The two large scaled prints, hung in perspex box frames were exhibited alongside a book of poems and photographs written from the characters perspective, providing viewers a deeper context of her story. The book is handmade out of Japanese paper. The fragile materials mirror the characters emotional instability and vulnerability, emphasising the care and delicacy that goes into handling it. The photographs reveal her fantasies and imagined realities, while the poems are addressed to a lover who remains largely unaware of her existence. Although they shared a brief interaction, he has long forgotten her; she, however, remains consumed by him. Through these fragments, readers gradually discover a character who is lonely, deeply emotional, naïve, and hopelessly romantic. Her companions; little toys appear in the drawings and in the exhibition space, highlight the absence of meaningful human connection in her life. Also scattered around the exhibition space are more items depicted in the drawings and smaller scaled works, juxtaposing the life sized character, bringing the scenarios to life and allowing viewers to step into her world. On the wall were a set of headphones which played The End of the World by Sharon Van Etten. The song is melancholy yet creates a soothing and immersive experience when stood in the space, reinforcing themes of longing and unrequited love. The drawer was left partly open, where more polaroids and toys collected dust, giving viewers a sense of intrusion into her life, observing things not intended for their eyes.