EMMA HIRSK | (In) Mura

(In) Mura represents iterative sculptural, performative, sonic and filmic responses to the contested architectural intimacies of ‘Långholmens Spinnhuset’ (Women’s Prison, 1649-1825), Stockholm, proposing a mediated exchange between rituals of incarceration, archival and contemporary prison typologies, temporality, touch, memory and human/non-human narrative. Unorthodox, uncomfortable choreographies are informed by the way in which a (female) body occupies, transforms and defines restrictive space, representing an augmented response to anatomies of containment, of boundaries, of gender, distortion and confinement, as a way to activate alternative imaginaries for democratic spatial futures.
As an international Artist-Researcher from Northern Ireland, based in Sweden, Emma’s work is contextualised against conflict histories, geo-politics and hybrid identities, that actively counterpoint encounter, performativity, publicness, and materiality towards democratic visions for contested spaces, cultures, images and bodies. With Sculpture as socio-spatial practice, Emma gained an M.A. Fine Art in 2004, exhibiting across USA, UK and Europe, with recent projects including Assault Protection series, 2020, at CFF, Salong Digital, SE, and the ‘Miscarriage: Performative Rituals for Visualising Loss’ research project, 2021, in collaboration with University of Leeds, UK. The Grief Cartographies, 2021, form part of the forthcoming Kluven/Cloven exhibition at Studio 44, Stockholm, as part of the pan-European ‘Woven Network Nordics’ Digital Residency, 2021.