‘What is life. A container for magic. A conductor for nameless frissons & frictions. Electricities & energies that sustain endless expansion.’ (Emma Talbot)
‘What is life?’ is just one of many gently probing questions addressed by British artist Emma Talbot (b.1969) in her solo exhibition Everything is Energy, in which the artist leads us through a rich eco-system of works – including silk painting installations, intimate drawings, sculptural forms (Talbot calls them ‘intangible things’) and animation – each exploring the complexity of our relationship with nature, technology and the world around us.
How we live in the world has long been a preoccupation of Talbot’s practice, which examines the role of humans within (and as the perpetrators of) the growing climate emergency amidst a changing geo-political landscape. These questions course in handwritten texts throughout two new monumental silk paintings; Everything is Energy and Are You a Living Thing That Is Dying or a Dying Thing That Is Living? which sit at the heart of the exhibition.
Steeped in folklore, mythology and futuristic technology, Talbot’s work draws audiences back and forth in time, exploring microcosmic movements between nocturnal and diurnal worlds, and embracing both ancient civilisations and a future dictated by science and data development. Building like a ball of energy over time, Talbot’s existential enquiries pull at the frayed edges of our consciousness, encircling both deeply personal concerns and universal anxieties that address how we live in the world today:
“There isn’t an action that doesn’t have some kind of impact on another thing, because that’s what we’re experiencing. Life is an accumulation of actions, and in that sense, energy moves through us. We’re full of energy in order to live… It’s a really good way of explaining and of thinking about what life is.”
In a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence and digital mediation, Talbot’s work offers a reminder of our fundamental connection to the natural world, and to one another. Everything is Energy invites us to slow down, question and to reconnect, harnessing the energy that flows throughout all living things, to ask us each ‘What can you gather before you retreat?’
Everything is Energy is accompanied by a NEW publication including texts by Jennifer Higgie, Gina Buenfeld-Murley, Emma Talbot, Aukje Ravn Lepoutre and Gemma Brace, exploring Talbot’s practice as both personal exploration and urgent social commentary. Available to buy from Arnolfini Bookshop throughout the exhibition.
The works Are You a Living Thing That Is Dying or a Dying Thing That Is Living and Everything is Energy (2024) are co-commissioned by Arnolfini and Copenhagen Contemporary.
Emma Talbot is represented by Galerie Onrust.
About the Artist
Emma Talbot
Emma Talbot works in drawing, painting, animation and sculpture articulating internal narratives as visual poems or associative ruminations, based on her own experience, memories and psychological projections.
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