Emily Cook

check out the updated bio and CV!

Here is my artist statement about the Drift Show

Artist Statement

Boats, water, swamp, forests and natural decay mingle in this work to allude to our volatile world. It speaks both of big picture changes, shifts in climate that guide the direction of our collective journey, and of the smaller changes that are a part of our singular journeys. The metaphor of losing one’s way in the wilderness resonates with people on an individual level because it is so often difficult to see the right way forward. It is difficult to speak of life without referring back to images of pathfinding. One “makes their way through life,” “chooses a direction” or “finds their path”.  Water offers another metaphor of wide open uncharted spaces, or of drifting down a river whose currents choose the way for us.

This work is also about material. The objects in the installation are made of paper and found objects and the method of creating them was very much affected by the climate in which they were made. I have negotiated a balance between control and chance by setting up possibilities for collaboration with nature through weather, locally found materials and paper.
All this is to say the work is about change and what happens during periods of change, when we are neither one thing nor another. During this flux there are more possibilities than at other more static moments. We may not have complete control over our futures, but the mindfulness with which we make those choices given to us moves our lives and the lives of others.  It is our choice to drift or to steer the way.