Winner of the Brian Botting Award for the Lynn Painter Stainers Prize in 2015, Ema is a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins where she won the Kate Barton Award for Painting in 2014. Her work was included in the Clyde and Co Award Collection 2014 and is part of the University of Arts London collection. http://www.emapina.com
Central to my practice is the perception of a dualism between the completeness of objects and natural things versus the emptiness and transience of human life. I am interested in how the human potential for reverie and fulfilment is undermined at once by political and economical conditions and by the limitations of consciousness and thought. In my practice I explore notions of emancipation, idleness and dream. My recent works relate to the body and depict objects from personal and cultural spheres – from a sanitary towel to folk dolls – shown in states of inertiaunderlined by tension. The paintings emerge from flesh-toned panels of MDF incrementally, through several layers of glazes and opacities, narrowing down on a sense of tonal equilibrium and psychological depth, honed by extensive photographic and video experimentation in the development of each work. My approach is a reaction to the contemporary visual world of mass communication – speed, techno-colour and consumerism. Amongst other influences I list the poetry of Pessoa, the philosophy of Heidegger and the films of Tarkovsky.
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