EMMA WOFFENDEN: Falling Hard

About

Emma Woffenden continues to explore the figure and the fragmented body in her latest sculpture series, ‘Falling Hard'. Using a variety of mixed materials including glass, jesmonite, polystyrene, clay and metal, Woffenden creates a discourse around the interconnectivity of the body as a physical and psychological site and the impact of what the body — whole or fragmentary — expresses. The influences of social structures and the dynamics of power relations on the individual imbue her sculpture with a palpable sense of internal conflict. Interpretation of contradictions and opposites is a pervasive theme in this new series of work; how internal emotional experience is expressed through the external action of the figure, the aesthetics of symmetry and asymmetry, the erotic and fetishistic power of religious sculpture; culminating in the unsettling yet exquisite appearance of her sculptures. The dualities Woffenden confronts in the ‘Baby Hammer' hybrid object - corporeal and material, playful and brutal, fragile and resilient - hint at violence both real and symbolic. Woffenden's uncanny forms trespass upon the viewer's imagination, casting an oblique light on the human condition. Emma Woffenden (b. 1962) studied at West Surrey College of Art & Design (1981-1984) and the Royal College of Art (1991-1993). She employs a full range of complex glass and mixed media techniques to make works that explore the power of myth and archetypes, and the human condition. Widely recognised as one of Britain's leading glass artists, her work is included in a number of international public collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Wellcome Trust and the Crafts Council, London; Ernsting Glass Museum; Broadfield House Glass Museum, West Midlands. Her award winning designs for Transglass can be found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She was appointed North Lands Creative Glass Artistic Director in October 2013. She lives and works in London and France.