Brief BiographyTrained at Liverpool School of Art in the early 1990s, Emma Safe subsequently spent several years as an Art Critic, writing for publications including Art Monthly, [a-n] Magazine, The Guardian and Metro Life. She moved on to become Programme Coordinator, and then a Commissioning Editor for [a-n] Magazine before leaving to pursue her own art work in the early 2000s.
I am honoured to have been appointed to the role of Hogwood Fellow and Artist in Residence with the Academy of Ancient Music 2019 / 2020. During the course of the year I will be drawing alongside the AAM in rehearsal and performance and will be developing studio work in response to prevalent themes and concepts inspired by the music.
DRAWING ON LOCATION
Standing in-situ to draw, I absorb the rhythm of place and respond to situations physically. It is how the weather gets into my drawings, how overlapping time becomes tangible. I never change the drawings after the event. In these works I compose scenes, but I am constantly trying to move beyond the static frame, seeking not only a rhythm for the drawing, but also a meaning beyond appearances, something essentially human beyond - or rather through - the personal and the particular. STUDIO PROJECTS Drawing remains central to my studio practice. Over a number of years I have been developing a method of working which incorporates elements of automatic drawing, drawing with spirit, and drawing blind. I interrupt this process with external stimuli - music, literature, personal experience, the life model - using them to influence the rhythm of the work and to steer it toward particular themes. The Rite of Spring (2016-17) Large-scale elemental works made in communication with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The works in this series developed over a twelve month period and are intended above all as a tribute to Stravinsky. Between Three Worlds Drawing influence from personal experience, classical mythology and Dante's Commedia, concentrating particularly on existential and ontological themes, these works prioritise human potential and human transience. Space and time is radically questioned. Figures are pulled between states of being; between sublime ascent, catastrophic destruction and the uneasy predicaments in-between. In Limine Spiritual landscapes exploring edge and infinity. In Limine (meaning on the edge or at the threshold of), develops my interest in the edges of spiritual and physical being, but in these works all immediate reference to narrative and allegory has been overwritten. Elements of landscape endure and external stimuli are still sometimes used, but now only to give rhythm and motion to the work. Abstract fields and minimal landscapes navigable only by transition and shifting horizons. EXHIBITING I am always looking for places to exhibit my work, conventional and unconventional. If you have a space, or an idea, that you think would fit in with my work, please do not hesitate to contact me: [email protected] For current, forthcoming and past exhibition information, please follow the Exhibitions link in the top menu. |
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