Emma Talbot
Existence: A Journey You Take Alone

The themes explored by the British artist and participant in this year’s Venice Biennale Emma Talbot (*1969) are fed by life itself. She processes archaic aspects of birth and death, love and loss, grief, shame and fear in her densely interwoven image sequences. Her often personal memories and experiences flow into the stories, whose main characters are often faceless beings with long hair.
Inspired by classical Japanese aesthetics that combine decoration and abstraction, modernity and tradition, Talbot is equally fascinated by Indian miniature painting. Artistically, she adapts this fundamental narrative structure, in which text and ornamentation become intertwined.