In an exploration of social politics, gender, language, the natural world, our intimacy with technology and the personal as political, Emma Talbot’s practice encompasses a variety of media. Often incorporating other sources into her work, the artist takes on an acutely personal lens. Her winning proposal for the Max Mara Art Prize takes Gustav Klimt’s Three Ages of Woman (1905), depicting a naked elderly woman standing in apparent shame alongside a young mother and her baby, as a springboard for subverting deeply rooted attitudes towards nature and women. With a nod to The Twelve Labours of Hercules, Talbot intends to give the elderly woman agency, animating her to overcome a series of modern-day trials and empowering her to reconstruct contemporary society, countering the negative attitudes towards ageing that prevail in our collective imagination.
During a bespoke six-month Italian residency organised by the Collezione Maramotti (originally scheduled to kick off in April 2020, but now postponed to later in the year due to coronavirus concerns), Talbot will have the opportunity to see Klimt’s painting first-hand at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, as well as spending time in Reggio Emilia and Sicily to research mythology, textile craftsmanship and permaculture.
