happiful september 2021

The perfect alternative
With a passion for promoting uniqueness, Sophie de Oliveira Barata,
founder of The Alternative Limb Project, shares her inspiration for
developing bespoke and stunning prosthetics, and why her creations
are an active invitation to see and celebrate difference
Writing | Lucy Donoughue
Founder of The Alternative
Limb Project, Sophie
de Oliveira Barata, is a
little shocked when I
congratulate her on 10 years of
her company’s existence. It’s
not something she’d realised,
she laughs, slightly baffled as to
why she hadn’t noted her own
anniversary, but as we chat it
becomes clear why this milestone
may have passed her by.
The Alternative Limb Project,
her brainchild, was established
in 2011 to create unique,
imaginative limbs that empower
the wearer, and inspire a positive
dialogue about the human body
and its differences. Her drive to
design and realise these pieces,
she confesses, keeps her artistic
brain more than busy, and she
recalls many years of working
through the night, and excited
conversations about materials
from crystals to light beams,
clocks to faux porcelain. No
wonder the years have flown by.
During this time, Sophie has
collaborated with amputees
including models, paralympians,
children, charity founders, and
ex-military personnel to create
bespoke limbs that are both
stunning to look at, and actively
draw attention to what can be
seen, rather than a part of the
body that is no longer there, or
was never present. She’s also
exhibited creations across the
world, prompting conversations
about transhumanism, body
perception, and personal
choices of limb representation
and expression.
Sophie, how did you first
become interested in
working with prosthetics?
I studied art in my early 20s,
and worked in a hospital in
my spare time. I was offered
an opportunity to help with a
medical disaster re-enactment
they were carrying out for
training, by creating realisticlooking
wounds with makeup.
The experience marked the
beginning of medicine and art
running side by side throughout
my work ever since.
I went on to study special effects
makeup at the London College of
Fashion, and I became fascinated
with the ways makeup can trick
the human eye. Shortly after
graduating, I took some work
experience at a company that
made prosthetics for amputees.
To me that was the ultimate trick
of the eye: making an artificial
limb appear convincing!
I worked there for eight years,
and was lucky enough to learn
how to make fingers and toes,
partial hands and feet, forearm
and leg covers.
How did your limb creation
practise evolve?
The process within that company
was for the prosthetist to see
clients, and then I’d create the
limb required from drawings,
measurements, and photographs.
So, I rarely met the people we
were making limbs for. However,
one of our prosthetists met with
a little girl called Pollyanna Hope
who was just 2 years old and
travelling in a pushchair when a
bus mounted the pavement and
sadly killed her grandmother,
severely scarred her mother, and
injured her, resulting in a leg
amputation.
28 | September 2021 | happiful.com