October 2020

BEHIND THE CANVAS
A LOOK INTO THE WORLD OF
ROSIE EMERSON

 Decorazon Gallery is delighted to introduce a new feature, in which we will be exploring the motivations behind our artists and their work. This series presents a unique opportunity to go behind the scenes of the artwork itself, and discover things about the artist you may not have previously known.

Award winning contemporary artist Rosie Emerson is best known for her elongated depictions of women, and has dedicated her practice to exploring beauty, power, and voyeurism within the subject of the female image. Inspired by her love of museums, architecture, theatre, silhouettes, shrines and rituals, she uses dramatic lighting, handmade costumes, set and prop making alongside printmaking, photography and painting to create genre defying one of a kind works of art.

In her very own words, let's look behind the scenes with Rosie Emerson...

E A R L Y  L I F E

I feel very fortunate that I come from a creative family. My Parents' house is full of delftware, old books, broken pots and flotsam and jetsam, things salvaged off skips, and handmade gifts. My father is a cabinet maker and I loved spending time in his workshop discovering secret drawers and compartments in the beautiful old bureaus and desks he was restoring. He also restored marquetry which uses decorative inlays including mother of pearl.

My grandmother Keyna Emerson is also a painter. She attended the Slade School of Art in London just before and just after the second world war, and continues painting, though her dream was to be a set designer. I’ve been thinking of this a lot, whilst looking through her books on set and costume design and making my own theatre maquettes.

My sister and I were always drawing as kids, we weren’t allowed much TV, and instead ran feral in the fields after school. We kept scrap books and drew and painted everything, including a lot of wedding dress illustrations and ballerinas! Art remains for me a place for fantasy and experimentation.

R E A D ,  L I S T E N  &   W A T C H 

I came to love reading late, being dyslexic I’ve struggled with both reading and writing, but thanks to my mum who made me persevere with it, I’m so happy because when I realised great books can give me that same thrill as experiencing an amazing work of art, I was hooked. I like visual books with a bit of magic, especially Angela Carter. Her short stories of reworked fairy tales I find really inspired in her use of anthropomorphic motifs to explore the human psyche. For example, Nights at the Circus tells the story of a half woman-half swan trapeze artist in a South London Brothel.

I listen to podcasts too, current favourites are The Guilty Feminist and The Great Women Artists. TV-wise I liked Little Fires Everywhere, I read the book first, I’ve also read the Handmaids Tale but I’m not brave enough to watch the TV version. It’s great to see many more stories written by women in the mainstream, but there is still a long way to go before the heterosexual male gaze is not the default in so many industries. I have also never missed an episode of RuPaul's Drag race.

E X T R A V A G A N C E

The Victoria and Albert museum is still one of my favourite places to visit. I tried to think of my favourite part of it, the jewellery, costumeand theatre set design rooms stand out, but I also love it all! They have fabulous fashion exhibits too, from Versace to Balenciaga and to their recent Tim Walker show, I always come away inspired. My love of flamboyant and lavish costumes and extravagant theatre design is what drew me to my latest subject, the British aristocrat Henry Cyril Pagetwho’s nickname was the ‘The Dancing Marquess’, who until now had been largely expunged from the family history books. 

Paget converted his inherited family chapel into an ornate, 150 seat theatre, which he named the Gaiety, where he performed plays by Oscar Wilde – a bold move at the time since Wilde had been jailed for 'obscenity'. He earned the title of the Dancing Marquess after his Butterfly Dancing, where he would perform in a voluminous robe of transparent white silk that would be waved like wings.

10% of profits from this print will go to All Out Charity, who campaign and fight for a world where no person has to sacrifice their family, freedom, safety, or dignity because of who they are or who they love. Find out more here.