About the work

A woman thrown on the rocks, in an unfamiliar place, is part of a narrative I developed in my work, exploring my own feelings of survival after becoming a widow. I wanted to account for the way bereavement can totally throw one's life off balance and how the lowest point of abandonment can also be the very beginning of a new, very different life.
This drawing was part of a group of works depicting the story of my own experience of rebuilding my life after personal tragedy, which formed part of the exhibition From The Inside Out at the Drawing Room in 2018.
 

Date and country of birth

1969, GB

About the artist

Born 1969 Worcestershire, Emma Talbot lives and works in London. Graduated from Birmingham Institute of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art.

Talbot’s work explores the personal terrain of interior thought and feeling, and casts this subjectivity into the context of prevalent contemporary concerns; such as our relationships with technology, with nature, power structures etc. Hand-drawn, intuitive language is the basis of her visual imagery. She combines image, text, motif and materiality to depict the experiential world of a female protagonist, based on an internalised idea of herself, who is searching for meaning. Talbot is interested in articulating ideas as formed in the mind’s eye and extends this through large painted silk hangings, drawing, 3D forms, installation, sound and animation.

Her work is held in public and private collections including Arts Council Collection; The British Council Collection; The David Roberts Collection, London; Permanent Collection AGWA Perth, Perth; and Daniel and Florence Guerlain Collection, Paris.

Selected solo exhibitions include Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia (2022); Emma Talbot, The Human Experience, Kunsthalle Giessen (2022); Emma Talbot, Kunsthaus Centre d’art Pasquart, Biel (2021); Ghost Calls, DCA Dundee (2021); When Screens Break, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2020); Sounders of The Depths, GEM Kunstmuseum voor Actuele Kunst, The Hague (2019); Emma/Ursula, Petra Rinck Galerie, Düsseldorf (2019); and Stained With Marks Of Love, Arcadia Missa, New York (2017). Selected group exhibitions include Starhawk’s Backyard, Galerie Onrust, Amsterdam (2020); From the Inside Out, Drawing Room, London (2018); Journeys Through the Wasteland, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2018); and Virginia Woolf, Tate, St Ives and touring (2018).

Awards include winner of the 8th Max Mara Art Prize for Women, in association with Whitechapel Gallery and Collezione Maramotti.