Emma Cousin UK, b. 1986

Emma Cousin (b. Yorkshire, 1986) is a painter and drawer based in London.

 Painting ideas of support, mobility and progress, she uses metaphor as a visual vehicle to demonstrate the breach between the figurative meaning and the literal application.

Often starting with a piece of wordplay, which sparks an imagistic response Cousin moves through literal, comedic, cartoon, psychological and imaginary visualisations and interpretations. This ideation expands into paintings that feature figures engaged in what might look like private puzzles, relationships or forms of communication.  Her contrapuntal compositions, colourful bodily extensions and awkwardly precise drawing acts out alternatives. Her drawings highlight puns and linguistic playfulness whilst breaking down meaning. Her works respond to the way language is structured, how it is used by and in the body and what happens when it fails. 

 Physical information from personal experience, study of anatomy and somatic practises, inform her characters. In a system of bodies, built led by a formal and diagrammatic logic, these avatarsfeature dynamic, carnivalesque scenarios that explore the space between realism and fantasy, past and future, felt experience and everyday interaction.