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closed Emma Talbot | The Age

The show

Emma Talbot, winner of the eighth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women , presents her new exhibition The Age/L'Età at the Collezione Maramotti , which will acquire her works. Talbot, after the first stage of the exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London (30 June – 4 September 2022), has reworked the display of the works adapting it to the spaces of the Collection.

The Age is composed of animations, painted and suspended silk panels, a three-dimensional work and some drawings. This new work explores themes such as representation and ageing, power and governance, and attitudes towards nature. For the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Talbot envisions a future environment in which humanity faces the dire consequences of late capitalism and must rely on older, holistic methods of construction and belonging, in order to survive, that rework the ancestral structures of power and celebrate the natural world.

The exhibition is the result of a six-month residency in Italy, specially organized for the artist by the Maramotti Collection. After receiving the prestigious biennial award in 2020, Talbot traveled between Reggio Emilia, Catania and Rome dedicating himself to the study of textile craftsmanship, permaculture, classical mythology and exploring places and institutions of great historical interest and which inspired his new body of works. The Age takes as its starting point the painting The Three Ages of Woman (1905) by Gustav Klimt, which Talbot was able to admire up close during his residence. Klimt portrays an elderly woman who holds her head with her face in her hands, in an expression of apparent shame. In his work, Talbot reimagines this elderly figure as a woman of will.

During the lockdown, unable to go to his studio, Talbot learned to make animations by himself. The central work of the exhibition is an animation in twelve chapters, in which the protagonist has to face a series of trials similar to the twelve labors of Hercules. During his stay in Rome, Talbot was able to study the representations of ancient Etruscan ceramics, powerful vehicles of classical mythology, together with Valentino Nizzo, director of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia. Instead of overcoming trials through destruction, theft, deception and murder (as Hercules did), the protagonist adopts practical, productive and care-focused solutions inspired by the twelve principles of permaculture, a method that allows ethical and sustainable way with the earth. By facing a series of challenges of our time, the protagonist has the opportunity to rebuild contemporary society, opposing negative attitudes in relation to ageing, power and the climate crisis. The exhibition also includes a selection of original drawings made by Talbot for his animations.

The Age also includes two large suspended, hand-painted silk panels depicting unstable landscapes of near-future ruins and volcanic terrain that the protagonist explores and inhabits. As in most of his works, Talbot has brought back to the silk some writings centered on the themes of the exhibition, which invite visitors to question their own perceptions in a direct way. The subjects of the works on silk are inspired by Talbot's travels in Sicily, where the artist was able to visit volcanic landscapes and ancient ruins, studying the principles of permaculture at the Casa di Paglia Felcerossa. During a side visit to Como, Talbot learned about silk recycling practices at Mantero Seta, the first Italian company to produce entirely recycled silk. Using recycled fabrics and sustainable resources in his practice infuses Talbot's work with questions of life cycles, renewal and unalterability over time.

The final element of The Age is a physical representation of the central figure of the elderly woman, in the form of a life-size sculpture made of soft, padded fabrics. Materials conceived by the artist in collaboration with Imax, the knitwear division of Max Mara, were used to create the external covering of the sculpture, which reproduces the wrinkles of aged skin and almost looks like armour. Inspired by the images of Hercules and the scenes admired in Etruscan vase art, Talbot's protagonist reaches out towards the center of a portal or a net, created by the artist in collaboration with Modateca Deanna, one of the most important Italian knitwear archives , through which it seems to reach a new world, alternative energies and a new way of being.

The Max Mara Art Prize for Women arises from a collaboration between Whitechapel Gallery, Max Mara and Collezione Maramotti. The prize has been awarded every other year since 2005 and is dedicated to female artists active in the UK who have not yet exhibited their work in a solo anthological exhibition. Recognized for its ability to promote the careers of female artists, it is the only visual arts award of its kind in the UK. Previous winners of the award are Helen Cammock, Emma Hart, Corin Sworn, Laure Prouvost, Andrea Büttner, Hannah Rickards and Margaret Salmon. The jury of the eighth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women was chaired by Iwona Blazwick OBE, outgoing director of the Whitechapel Gallery, and saw the participation of several experts from the art world: the gallerist Florence Ingleby, the artist Chantal Joffe, collector Fatima Maleki and art critic Hettie Judah.

The exhibition is accompanied by a book and a short documentary which recounts Talbot's experience during his six-month residency in Italy.

Talbot has also been selected for the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, entitled Il latte deidreams/The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani, which will be open until 27 November 2022.

Visit with free admission during the opening hours of the permanent collection.

23 October 2022 : 2.30pm – 6.30pm

27 October 2022 – 19 February 2023

Thursday and Friday 2.30pm – 6.30pm Saturday and Sunday 10.30am – 6.30pm

Closed: November 1st, December 25th–26th, January 1st and 6th

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Via Fratelli Cervi, 66
42124 Reggio Emilia

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