Open Thoughts
Emma Talbot
OPENING:
Saturday 21 October 2017
7 9 PM
OPEN:
22 October
3 December 2017
Opening: October 21st 2017, 7 PM
Greeting: Dr. Werner Dohmen
Introduction: Ben Kaufmann
NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein is pleased to present the exhibition Open Thoughts by british artist Emma Talbot. During the course of several years Emma Talbot created a dense and original oeuvre. Her artistic practice originates in drawing, but her installations and sculptures can be seen as three-dimensional drawings as well. Thus complex nettings in form, language and image arise, which entail an oscillating pull in the momentum of the line and the seemingly psychedelic colouring.
Talbot establishes a hypnotic as well as lyrically transfigured narration composed of passion, grief, melancholy and ennui. In the interplay between image and text the private account comprises a haunting confrontation of the observer with the topoi of life and death and accompanying states of anxiety. Talbots protagonists are tenderly drawn creatures with a childlike aesthetic, constantly moving, in a state of flux. Though in the narrative sequence their timelessly engrossed innocence contrasts a radically differentiated world. In Emma Talbots intermedia ouevre dreamful imagination and contemporary existence are linked. Thus an undefined persona between voyeur and empathic friend is assigned to the spectator.
Furthermore paintings and drawings integrate handwritten text elements in the tight structure of the narration. These poetically connected strings of words raise incoherent questions and intellectual pastimes and cross-link with the ornamental imagery. Talbot challenges the social position of the individual via graphic depiction of the technical tools of communication such as mobile telephones or the setting of her tales in a diffuse threshold region between private and public space.
Emma Talbot was born in 1969 in Worcestershire, England. She studied in Kent, Birmingham and at the Royal College of Art, London. The artist lives and works in London.
The exhibition by Emma Talbot will be the last show curated by Ben Kaufmann at the NAK. Therefore we’d like to invite you for drinks and music after the opening. In addition Ben Kaufmann would like to thank the NAK board, team, members, partners and sponsor as well as all participating artists for their support.
Kindly supported by
Parallel opening
3 PM - reflecting und Sammlung mit losen Enden 03: 21, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster
6 PM - Noemi Weber / Noboyuki Osaki, Ludwig Forum Aachen
The three institutions are connected via the Contemporary Art Bus. The tour is for free, but places on the bus are limited. Further information and application via www.verycontemporary.org.