Emma Powell

My work explores personal issues in a secretive, abstract or indirect way. I use combinations and layers of colour, pattern, letters, and language to create prints. This often stems from my own photographs or lists of words, and I investigate ideas and visual solutions through overflowing and disorderly handmade sketchbooks.

As an artist with Aphantasia (the inability to ‘see’, ‘smell’ or ‘taste’ anything in one’s head) my design process and research are very important to me, as I cannot ‘see’ what it is that I am going to create, and instead have to rely on a ‘gut feeling’ developed from years of experience.

I enjoy working collaboratively. My recent series of screen-prints and ‘Sharpie’ etchings use degrees of transparency to communicate layers of information regarding a variety of ‘lockdown routes’; journeys that have been donated by a range of different people who undertook repetitive activities during the Covid-19 restrictions.

Instagram: @dremmapowell

Image: THIS IS NOT A PIPE V - This is not a view WIP3, Emma Powell and Mianam Bashir.

Emma Powell collaborated with Mianam Bashir 31 d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent artists taking part in the DASH award winning project: We Are Invisible We Are Visible (WAIWAV).

The artists staged Dada inspired interventions in 30 museums and galleries across Britain and Northern Ireland on 2 July 2022 only​​​​​​​, marking the 102nd anniversary of the 1st Dada International Exhibition in Berlin.

Their intervention, THIS IS NOT A PIPE (a Dada guide to interpretation) took place at The Hepworth, Wakefield​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. Find out more.

Visit the Project website waivav.org

Visit the DASH Project page