In Your Absence, 2024

Chairs have often been used as a symbol of a person to represent them in their absence throughout art history, including paintings, television and movies. They are very personal objects that we use every day, something that we build subconscious attachments to. Artist Emily Brookfield uses the chair as a vehicle to illustrate her lived experience through personal relationships and connections to people past and present, highlighting the similarities of relationships to people with that object. Through her meditative approach, Emily explores themes of connection, attachment, loss, growth and belonging. The organic brush marks, drawn lines, and hand-applied glazes are a reflection of the natural ebbs and flows of the relationship. They celebrate acceptance, letting go of control and expectation, allowing the medium to guide the outcome.

Emily Brookfield is a ceramic artist based on Wurundjeri country (Lilydale) in Victoria. Emily’s work is informed by material exploration and an investigation of object interaction to create a sense of place. Our innate need to attach meaning and sentimentality to objects continues to fascinate Emily, and the community connection through clay drives her practice.