Master of Fine Art’s alumna, Ema Mano Epps and Jyoti Bharwani are nearing the end of their two-year residency at City and Guilds of London Art School. Previously graduated from St Martins, these two female artists represented the student voice through the pandemic and took part in the Board of Trustees. This shared journey naturally facilitated a collaborative path of making artwork alongside their own practices.
‘We have gone between home-makeshift studios and the Art School facilities and in doing so engaged in a series of works that encompass the sincerity of the times and experiences we’ve lived through and continue to do so. For both of us the process of making in the print room, glass, foundry and wood workshops merged with the homecooked pigment recipes, foraged and recycled materials from our immediate environment. When faced with the height of human vulnerability and fragility, the environment showed us the act of self-healing in unity.’
Ema and Jyoti both have sculptural practices informed by playful materiality. The resonance of universal and material values connect human as part of these and not as the ‘other’. This hands-on research inquiry has led to an intuitive and ongoing material collaboration. Exploring the fluidity between nature, human and the universe means Jyoti’s ‘Cosmos in my luggage’ has merged with Ema’s ‘We are the Universe.
‘The variety of environment and scale present in our works allows us to witness the commonality of human experience and observe its resonance in the process of material behaviour.’
Self-taught or art school?
Coincidentally enough, we both graduated from Central St Martins and missed each other, and then we met on our MA Fine Art at City and Guilds London Art School.
If you could own one work of art what would it be?
Roni Horn’s Pink Tons
How would you describe your style?
Balanced and grounded. We’re organic, effeminate and abstract.
Can you tell us about your artistic process?
Our collaborative works celebrate the traces of natural and manmade – the alchemy of making, resulting in an ephemeral aesthetic with an element of impermanence.
Is narrative important within your work?
Yes absolutely. For both of us, the home-cooked pigments, foraged and recycled materials represent the immediate environment at the height of current human vulnerability and fragility.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
There are so many extremely inspiring female artists, like Phyllida Barlow, Linda Benglis, Cornelia Parker, Liz Elton, Andrea V Wright, Vera Cox, Shilpa Gupta, Rana Begum, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Geraldine van Heemstra and Kristina Chan.
What or who inspires your art?
The environment, each other, nature and relationships all tie in together and connect through alchemy, and these connections inspire us to make work informed through materiality.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
Currently, we share a Georgian attic studio at City and Guilds London Art School. Today we have moved into an independent atelier at PaintSpaces Gallery, where we are very excited to be co-curating a new venture.
Do you have any studio rituals?
We take it in turn to talk, meditate and sip tea as part of our ongoing practice.
What are you working on currently?
We are working with large-scale bespoke works on canvas, paper and textile alongside a series of clay works and glass sculptures.
Where can we buy your art?
At the moment the photographic ‘Alchemy Series’ 2021, a unique set of 4 custom sized Giclee on Awagami Washi Bamboo works is at the Koppel Project Gallery on 54-56 Oxford Street W1D 1BQ. To view the full collection, it is possible to visit us in our atelier at PaintSpaces Gallery by appointment.
