Em Ingram-Shute

Em Ingram-Shute is a process-driven sculptor who investigates psychic and political themes through intuitive material combinations. She transforms latent memories in her body through the materials at hand, which can be as diverse as felt, rubber, steel, artificial grass, and concrete. Through both found and fabricated objects, she taps into the tensions between presence and absence. Presence is the molecular nature of the object in the here and now, whereas absence is the intergenerational memories held within. The latter encompasses the psychosomatic and the social, impressed upon the body at a cellular level. Interested in how these memories have a life of their own and come together subconsciously, Ingram-Shute elevates the mundane through surreal assemblages. Her work enlists humour to address internal struggles and social inequality, constructing objects with spatial authority that put on display her own vulnerabilities. Both tender and forceful, these works invite the viewer to navigate their own internal associations.