Statement

Artist’s Statement – Summer 2019
 
Emma Hurst (b. 1973)
 
As an artist deeply invested in the relations between time and body, Emma Hurst’s approach to image-making happens from the inside out. Her work engages with embodied time through other forms of duality – darkness and light, passion and fragility, even the space between people and things. The work aims to blur boundaries between painting, textiles, sculpture and installation, activating the latent, emotive power of the material world. Each piece of work bears traces of its history, drawn from and responding to the world we live in.
 
Hurst’s practice is process driven, embracing physical activity in the studio as a framework in which to explore manifestations of thought and feeling. She creates work in single editions, differentiated by the unique interactions of ink/pigment on a substrate articulated by folding. By staining pigment into fabric, allowing colour to penetrate the structure of canvas or linen, Hurst constructs geometric patterns with creases delicately recorded by the dyeing process. Layered colours of varying transparency and texture create depth, drawing the viewer further into the work.