About

Emma Black lives and works in London, creating sculpture and installation that explores the human experience from a non-normative perspective. Their work examines the pressures society places on us and the tension between conformity and defiance, particularly how individuals adapt, mask or reshape themselves to fit social and political expectations. They draw on personal and cultural associations with objects and materials, combining them in unexpected ways to create new meanings and construct environments that feel familiar yet strange.

Working with ceramics, found objects, wood and moulding and casting techniques (often using their own body) Emma creates forms that investigate otherness and the unseen. Bodies appear in parts: torsos, ribs, teeth and masks that hover between figure, prop and object. Ceramics introduce a material contrast with the body: surfaces become hardened, fixed and held in place, suggesting preservation and control while remaining fragile. These sculptures and installations emerge from experiences of illness, disability, gender and neurodivergence, where embodiment can feel unstable, estranged or subject to external pressures, shaping perceptions of time, space and the body.

Humour, the comic grotesque and the absurdity of inhabiting the body are central to Emma’s practice, offering ways to navigate difficult emotions and articulate what escapes language. Exaggeration, awkwardness and theatrical display sit alongside vulnerability, drawing attention to the body as intimate and exposed, held between agency and objectification. Emma’s work encourages audiences to consider experiences beyond their own and allows those who see themselves reflected to feel a sense of recognition and understanding.