Emma Talbot addresses to us humans from the perspective of the animals. You Are Not the Centre (Inside the Animal mind) animals would tell us if they could. But somehow humans tend to believe and behave as if they are the centre not only in amimals’ world but in the whole universe.
Emma Talbot’s Human/Nature (2025) is a monumental textile installation made of painted silk and an accompanying animation film entitled You Are Not the Centre (Inside the Animal mind), commissioned for EMST. In it – as in many of the artist’s works, there’s a female protagonist – a version of the artist herself – who is always searching and exploring, trying to make sense of the world. In this work, Talbot leaves the human sphere to enter the animal mind, trying to understand the world viewed from non-human perspectives. The figure lives through different sensory experiences as she encounters the olfactory world of the dog, the mind of a spider that plans to make complex webs or the visual perceptions of deer and the anxiety responses of captive birds etc.
Emma Talbot talked to Ex_posure and Eleni Zymaraki.
Your work Human/Nature currently presented at EMST is part of the group exhibition Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives.
Human/Nature is an in situ installation that consists of a large scale painted silk surface, a three-dimensional work made from fabric and an animation film.
How do these mediums and final works relate to each other? Are these meant to be seen as autonomous, self-existent works or as parts of a whole body?
Everything is interconnected (as in nature). All my works come from the same language, the same set of concerns but I am able to explore ideas differently in different media. The animation is made from my drawings, with a soundtrack I made myself. Animation allows the viewer to go on a narrative journey. In this case, it is episodic and they follow a female protagonist who enters the minds of different species. She experiences what it is like to have different sensibilities and capacities and realizes human limitations. The painted silk explores this theme, but it’s physical presence in space and the imagery operate quite differently. The painted work explores the physicality and intelligence of animals and the problematics of human nature. The three-dimensional work is a Chimera – a mythical joining of animal and human together. From one side, you can see quite distinctly that there’s a wolf, a woman, a bird and a snake, but from the other side they are all one chimerical form, that shares the same energy.
The female protagonist in your works is, as you have mentioned in the past, your avatar. Could you explain the need and purpose to place yourself within your works?
I am always trying to find ways of accounting for life experience, at this point in time and at the same time to make work that closely matches what thinking is like. I can only say what my experience is and hope to share it with others. The woman is a faceless person who is always simultaneously exploring an interior set of thoughts and emotions as well as the external world. She comes up against the issues that have impact on our times. The woman is faceless, because I cannot see my own face from inside myself, but also because she can be ‘anyone’ in the sense that she’s a figure that guides you through the work, without being a fictional character.
You share thoughts and messages through short texts embedded in your works;
What is the process of forming these texts and what is their role within the work?
The texts are my own writing. Sometimes I think very verbally, sometimes pictorially and therefore text is a very important element that acts as a voice in the work, like listening to someone’s thoughts. Usually, I write them while I am painting, but they do not operate like illustration, they do not describe the images.
Environmental crisis and ethical concerns regarding animal rights are issues that have been and are being adressed by many contemporary artists and also embraced by art institutions.
Do you believe in art’s power to change things?
Yes I do, and increasingly so. Art allows a space for reflection that is expansive and communicative. It allows meaningful ideas to be shared. Art can tell the stories of its time, can share understanding and can hold up a mirror to ourselves. It can speak to power, it can operate emotionally, it can challenge but it can also give a sense of hope. We are moving through volatile times, and we need the type of articulation that art allows us; to share our visions, to help imagine a viable path through this era.
Emma Talbot, EMST, HUMAN/NATURE