Originally at Arnolfini between September and December 2016, Emotional Archaeology presented a number of key works spanning Daphne Wright’s career, and was the most comprehensive presentation of the artist’s work in the UK at that time. Wright has been based in Bristol for nearly two decades, dividing her time between the city and Ireland. Often working from her studio at home, her practice draws on the suburban and the domestic realm to explore complex social issues and our understanding of society. The exhibition included major sculptural works alongside films, prints, drawings and newly produced works, all of which invited the viewer to consider them on an emotional level.
Discover the insights behind the creation of Daphne Wright’s Emotional Archaeology exhibition from the curators and makers behind the scenes of the acclaimed survey exhibition here at Arnolfini.
Over twenty-five years, Wright’s work has been driven by a relentless curiosity in the ways in which materials can express unspoken human preoccupations. The artist often turns to traditional craft and figurative techniques in order to explore intimate and domestic issues such as parenting, ageing, care and our relationship with animals. Simultaneously both exquisite and shocking, in Wright’s work the personal is always political and what seems benign and non-threatening is shadowed by something darker and more troubling.
