Emily Speed
The idea of shelter and the inhabitant is at the core of much of my work; how a person is shaped by the buildings they have occupied and how a person occupies their own psychological space. The word inhabitant contains the root habit (dress) and implies a habitat (dwelling) and my work often has this double function of being both shelter and clothing. The shelters are an expression of the layers that we surround ourselves with. Increasingly my work is worn or performed, using somewhat absurd spaces and sculptures constructed specifically to fit my body.
Biography
Emily Speed (born 1979) is based at The Royal Standard in Liverpool. Speed studied for a BA (Hons) Drawing & Painting, Edinburgh College of Art (1997 – 2001) before completing an MA in Fine Art: Drawing at University of the Arts London: Wimbledon College of Art (2005-2006). Recent exhibitions include Oredaria Gallery, Rome; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St Louis, USA; Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London; Bluecoat, Liverpool; Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2013 she exhibited at Castlefield Gallery in Manchester alongside Hayley Newman and was shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize. In 2014 she will complete her first significant public art commission, creating a playground as part of Art in the Public Realm programme for Bristol City Council and Arnolfini. In October 2014, Speed will be resident at the British School at Rome as the Derek Hill Foundation Scholar (drawing).