Camilla Emson (b. 1985) is an interdisciplinary artist whose psychobiological work positions the female body as a precarious vessel to explore themes of motherhood, objectification and transformation. Working primarily with pliable fibre, liquid media, and molten glass, her sensorially engaging practice tests the limits of containment in physical and psychological ways, whilst also exploring how our bodies are porous containers for our pasts, emotions and traumas. Across her disciplines, she is concerned with notions of reciprocity held within our sense of interiority and exteriority, or depth and surface. She uses her breath in glassblowing and spills ink and bleach onto recycled fabric to create biomorphic forms, twisting molten glass or looping clusters of thread to create skin-like membranes. In her semi-abstract textile works the leakages, fallen threads, and knots are cast in luminous oil paint that fix the fluid mess within an amorphous system, through shapes which resemble ancient alchemical apparatus. Her processes of making enact a shapeshifting in order to unlock and reimagine or rediscover the female body. Her work is autobiographical and also carries traces of her somatic therapeutic work and research, which runs alongside her studio practice.
Upcoming 2024: Fabric of Life curated by Catherine Loewe during Frieze week.
Grants recently gained include: Arts Council funding for developing creative practice at ORME Project Space in Rome; Arts Council funding for developing creative practice at CASA in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Recent commissions include: Schweitzer Project with Six Gallery in Milan; a large installation at Conduit St with Paul Van Zyl (Human Rights lawyer for Desmund Tutu).
Recent residencies include: League of Stars in Thebes, Xenia Creative Centre in Hampshire, The Beekeepers Art Residency in the Algarve in Portugal, in collaboration with curator Mia Pfeifer and Cob Gallery London; The Land Art Road Trip USA with Gerson Zevi; Rozenblum Foundation in Buenos Aires and Arteles in Finland.
My works have been presented in a solo show Fibrosis with Gallery Nosco in New York. Other presentations of my work include: ‘Cradle’ curated by Anna Souter in Dalston, London. Sublime Synthesis at Xenia curated by Fergus Wiltshire, Gothic Midsummer at Roman Road curated, by Anna Souter, D.REM, a dream sensorium at The Freud Museum, Unit 1 Project Space in London curated by Tatiana Cheneviere, Art Night/Whitechapel Gallery, Penelope with Alteria Art, LambArts Gallery with curator Roya Sachs, ArtBarter at Art Dubai, The Cob Gallery, Rook and Raven Gallery in Fitzrovia, Alma Zevi in London, Leila Heller Gallery in New York, St Moritz Art Masters, Slyzmud Gallery in Buenos Aires, GriffinGallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Art Licks at Museum of Contemporary Art, Peckham, ArtRio with Gallery Nosco, Fundacion Rozenblum in Argentina.
In the past decade, Emson’s work has also been acquired for some of the worlds most notable art collections.
Press, Publications & interviews
Artmap The art of dreaming doc Interview for 100 women artists #83 2018
FAD magazine Newcastlelondon Gaia Art Foundation w11stuido fashion 2017
Lamb Arts Short film by Logan Irvine Macdougal Art Dubai GianmatteoMalchiodi Blog 2016
Wide Walls, Material Identity Meer 2014
Being without walls ArtLicks Glen Stoker 2013
Horst and Edeltraut 2011
