‘One definition of a movable feast is something that changes over time. Another explanation is something that nourishes the soul but is transitory. Yet a third description is something special that one stumbles across.’
‘A Movable Feast’ is a presentation of small sculptures and digital prints by the artist Emma Witter. The exhibition takes place on the first floor of a beautiful listed Georgian townhouse on the Portman Estate, in London.
Witter’s assemblages are astonishingly elaborate and instilled with femininity, as well as emphasising her interest in discarded objects and abandoned spaces. Over the past few years, the artist has been particularly interested in inhabiting, working, and exhibiting in temporary vacant urban spaces. Her pale and opaque pieces are quiet yet compelling expressions. Owing to Witter's nomadic lifestyle - a life in boxes – these current artworks are small-scale, easy to protect and transfer. To her, these intricate pieces are offerings or precious jewels of embellishment.
Expanding on her signature work in animal bone - Witter reveals to us the breadth of her material exploration. She employs both ancient and overlooked ephemera, such as oysters and eggshells, matches and insects, elevating those through her careful and curious processes, such as weaving and copper electro-forming. Perhaps most interestingly, she presents a new direction in kiln-formed glass in which she has delicately prepared and mixed Thames foraged bone dust.
Her latest collection of photographs, Remnants and Rituals, 2022, is available as individual prints and as a special collection of six smaller photographs. Each set is held in a glass box with a sliding lid, in a limited edition of ten. With this body of work, Witter is demonstrating her adoration for insignificant and discarded items she so carefully preserves and arranges, initiating a kind of rebirth or revival with an altered meaning. Her contemporary artifacts seize our eye and imagination, drawing attention to the fleeting moments of life, and to Witter’s own personal stories, as well as instances we share.
Throughout this period, Witter will also be creating new works in her provisional quarter, using it to its fullest extent, at the same time she is denoting the exhibition title - A Movable Feast.
After the preview, the exhibition will open by appointment throughout the next few months. See below for further details.
The exhibition A Moveable Feast is open from
Friday 5th November 2022 – Tuesday 3rd January 2023
Wednesday – Saturday 11.00 to 17.00 hours & by appointment
Special Events
Private View 4th November 2022, 16.00 – 20.00 hours
Opening Day 5th November 2022 - 11.00 – 17.00 hours
Suite 7, Portman Estate, 75 Gloucester Place, first floor, London W1U 8JP
RSVP stating the event you wish to attend
[email protected]
Courtesy and ©Emma Witter and Renée Pfister (text), 2022