Last Gasp
Emma Lyn Winkler
25 JANUARY–9 FEBRUARY

Fusing collage, painting and ceramics, Last Gasp draws upon the death care industry and funeralia, employing incongruent humour to critically reflect upon modern responses to death. 

Oil paintings on canvas and paper create a cluster of floating imagery, while stretched works placed on glazed ceramic stands become Medieval chimeras, sprouting hooves, claws and even human feet. Together, the painted and ceramic works form a peculiar network of unexpected visual and conceptual connections. 

Emma constructs complex collages and cropped fragments, layering and reproducing found photographs through paint, enhancing the qualities of the original reference. Drawing on imagery from outdated pseudoscience books and internet archives, this approach amplifies the strange and obscure, making it even more absurd.

This exhibition brings together a range of references, from Victorian hair jewellery to 2000s magicians, to highlight the relationships between melancholic objects, rituals, props and performance in the context of commercial and theatrical death practices. 

Like its eponymous euphemism, Last Gasp dances around the topic of death, gleefully drawing an intriguing diagram of links and associations. With sincere curiosity, this exhibition playfully points out the absurdity of contemporary approaches to death and our futile attempt to materialise a distinctly metaphysical experience.