Emma Hart

This artworks is part of Ways of Seeing, a partnership between Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture 2019 and the Government Art Collection. Ways of Seeing turns the borough into a gallery with 33 internationally renowned artists displayed in 28 unexpected locations.

Have you ever played the game of Chinese whispers? How reliable is the information you receive and pass on? This idea inspired Get Back In Your Shell Like by Emma Hart. The ceramic sculpture looks like a satellite dish. ‘Shell like’ is the Cockney slang for ‘ear’. The artist is suggesting being imprisoned by technology, or stuck in your own head.

Hart playfully uses patterns and layers to explore complex ideas. Which element of the dish is most important, the prison-like bars or the people? It might make viewers think about how they receive today’s constant flow of information.

Hart is also interested in television. The bars could be interference on an old analogue television set. What will you see when you look at it?

Emma Hart was born in London and has a PhD in Fine Art from Kingston University. She studied photography but is now known as a sculptor. In 2016, she spent six months in Italy after winning an award. She worked in Faenza, a town famed for its ‘majolica’ tin-glazed pottery. 

Tell us what the artwork makes you think and feel using #wfculture19