One of thousands

2007

One of thousands was created as a site-specific response to the Florence Trust Residency; composed of a video installation projected inside a narrow alleyway underneath the church organ and an additional sound piece, which was playing from above next to the organ and in other areas of the church. The particular positioning of the video encouraged an intimate and contemplative engagement with the work, whilst the sound playing from above created a disruption between moving image and sound.

Drawing outlines no 3

Looking for myself

2016

Looking for myself is part of the Drawing outlines series. A recurrent concern in Emanuele’s practice lies in how the body continues beyond its physical boundaries into the space, which implicates a spatial and a social context; an investigation that she undertakes with varied approaches across a range of medium.

Sweeping actions no #1

2017

Framing as choreographic moments, the sweeping and walking actions of the cleaning and security staff inside the Heydar Aliyev Centre by Zaha Hadid – such an extraordinary space in an incongruous place –  Sweeping Actions no #1 juxtaposes the timeless gleaming white hallways and floors of the space with the slow, repetitive and uninspired movements of the working staff that seemingly aimlessly, walk back and forth across the building during opening hours. Defining their walks as lines in space, Emanuele channels these movements as if there was a stage they were rising on.

Sweeping Actions no #1 has been made after a residency at Yarat Contemporary Art Space in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2014; it has been included in A History of Drawing, an exhibition at Camberwell Space that charts the history of teaching and making of drawing at Camberwell College of Arts curated by Kelly Chorpening.

Post-it notes dance

2015

Originally realised for WhiteNoise, Post-it notes dance is Emanuele’s inventive response to the use of stationary material during her collaborative residency. The capacity to activate materials in innovative and performative ways is apparent throughout Emanuele’s practice, in WhiteNoise the material migrates into a performative gesture. The post-it notes become the Post-it notes dance, a piece where Emanuele obsessively attempts to free herself from their stickiness; a powerful metaphorical gesture that resonates with meaningful associations.

 

Dotty mask

2015

Originally realised for WhiteNoise, Dotty Mask is a film that shows a slow, repetitive and lived-through experiential gesture in which one by one Emanuele plucks off adhesive coloured stationary dots from her face. ‘The performance of Emanuele drawing dots away from skin reveals the origin of the sign, the image within which meaning for us begins and remains circumscribed: the human face. The space of the face to be precise: the living pictogram, which signals the relation between its parts as a lived-through experience, yet whose singular history is continually connected with every glance to the varied history of others’ (extract from Whitenoise Joe Graham Text)

Two but not two

2008

In two but not two Emanuele continues her exploration of the fluidity of the boundaries between inner & outer realms of a subject . What interests her has to do with being a subject, living in both a private /personal space as well as in a public/inter-relational one and the negotiation between those two. A concern that underpins much of her work. These c prints are a selection of images from the balls series.

Melting series

2005

Speechless

2006

Stillness

2005

The video Stillness explores the fluidity of the boundaries between the inside and the outside by using a transparent, spherical glass container filled with ink, immersed in water.  The work shows a very slow transfer of black ink into water.  The image, which at times seems almost still, is in continuous transformation.  Gradually, the object disappears into blackness, leaving behind a reflection of its surroundings. The projection, shot in real time, lasts over an hour, is in a loop and is projected onto sandblasted glass.

Black milk

2006