Emma Safir

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

My crossmedia practice spans painting, photography, digital manipulation, antiquarian textile techniques, and sculpture. I employ different modes of image generation—rubbings, analog film, digital photography, Photoshop and embroidery—to explore the gendered labor of textiles and how it relates to the history of computing. These invisibilized formations of domestic and digital labor share undervalued status in Western capitalism. The upholstery I utilize renders my paintings supple and seductive, while their digitally manipulated images deceive transparency and space. Sewing is both a language and a method of problem solving. It is also a decidedly politicized form of mark making, flouting its gendered domestic origins, or even its traditional use-value. I take photos of various “privacy solutions,” including privacy glass, reflections, and fabric behind and/or in front of glass. I then digitally manipulate my images and print them onto fabric. By doing so, I take my images out of their original context. I cannibalize my work through multiple media, reusing photographs and materials, scanning and photographing finished work, and incorporating these images into new pieces. In doing this, my paintings go through various stages that separate my own hand from physical image making while also making my hand more apparent with every technological slip. These processes of reinterpretation and regurgitation create a false sense of indexicality, nodding to what I see as to the...

Artwork