Brigitte Mulholland is thrilled to present Fluid Encounters, a solo presentation by Emily Orta for Art-o-Rama 2024 in Marseille.
Sculpting an inanimate lump of clay involves manipulation, invention and interpretation in order to produce a distinctive entity. Orta’s booth encompasses a series of works evoking the passage of time, mirroring the raw material from which a sculpture is produced - and the fluidity of the body that shapes it - as tactile organic forms, all evolving through a series of transformations. Orta also embraces scientifically coded techniques to stage her surrealist chimeras - embracing duality and creating her own intriguing cabinet of curiosities. Her works are ambiguously fluid - both abstract and figurative, Orta’s hand fueled by these seemingly dueling, yet ultimately complementary, approaches to the medium.
One of the large sculptures, The Blob, is a viscous entity that is neither plant, nor animal, nor fungus, but rather an intangible amalgamation of cells, and something like a floating soul. Orta deliberately blurs the lines between animate and inanimate, real and surreal, inviting viewers to question the complexities of existence. Another work, Oceanus, is a hybrid creature which embodies the vastness and mystery of the deep sea: gills swaying like sea silk in the currents, clad in drapery that echoes the stalactites that decorate and inhabit a cave, collecting the unknown secrets of the abyss.
The centerpiece of the presentation is Orta’s largest work to date, an anthropo-zoomorphic entity entitled If I swim in the sea, does the sea swim in me? Comprised of fragmented body appendages that are part-human, part-bird, and part-fish, the sculpture transgresses divisions and the supposed order of the environment, creating an imaginary universe where all creatures, both real and imagined, are united as one.
Emily Orta (b. 1999, Paris) is a self-taught British-Argentinian ceramicist, born and raised in Paris. Her work is concerned with the fragility of living organisms and systems. Orta deliberately blurs the lines between animate and inanimate, real and surreal – crafting ambiguous sculptural forms that invite viewers to ponder the complexities of existence. Her intuitive act of sculpting clay captures the intricate beauty of life and the promise of the possibility in the unknown. In doing so, she invites observers to explore their own relationships with the natural world, and to contemplate the evolving and mysterious tapestry of human existence. Orta has developed a unique personal language, grounded in the process of making. She pushes the technical boundaries of the medium through the creation of her own glazes, and a rigorous - and somewhat unorthodox - glazing and firing process, blurring the lines between tradition and experimentation. Her ceramics stand as eloquent expressions of the beauty found in ambiguity. Brigitte Mulholland will present a solo exhibition of her work at the gallery in Paris in December 2024.