Emma Stibbon. Uncertain Ground

About

Stibbon’s previous solo exhibition »Ice Mirage« in 2015 was dedicated to large-format drawings of polar landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. This forthcoming solo exhibition will feature drawings and printed graphic works by Emma Stibbon, which were executed after a field visit to the volcanoes of Big Island - the largest island of Hawaii. The PuʻuʻŌʻō crater forms part of the Kīlauea volcano - one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. Since 1983 lava has continuously been streaming from the volcano into the Pacific Ocean, where it then abruptly cools down. Emma Stibbon not only renders the moment of eruption in her works, but also its impact on the landscape. Deep ravines carve open the earth; deserted craters and rising sulphur vapours characterise the scenery. In her drawings »Broken Ground I and II« the artist evokes an overwhelming beauty that is inseparably tied to the fragility of the volcanic landscape. The fragility - the »Uncertain Ground« - is reflected in her works on paper, particularly in the process of drawing itself due to the artist’s use of volcanic ash gathered in the field. Stibbon’s technique is expanded towards a new spiritual dimension by the widespread Hawaiian animistic belief that there is a presence of a soul in the materiality of nature.