On Collections: Emma Talbot on Huma Bhabha

March 2021
Episode 11
Emma Talbot on Huma Bhabha
23:29
Carved styrofoam and cork sculpture, stood on a very low white plinth. The sculpture has a brown body with gender non-specific features carved in, a greenish head with very large ears and dark cavities for eyes.

Huma Bhabha, What is Love, 2013.

Courtesy the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Photo: Tim Bowditch

Emma Talbot selected What is Love (2013) by Huma Bhabha when asked to pick a work from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection to discuss in relation to her own practice.

Bhabha’s painted sculpture, which could just as easily be an alien from the future or symbol of an ancient past, forms the basis of a discussion about time travel and the way both artists imbued their works with with feeling and tie the personal up with events in the wider world.


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Emma Talbot wears a black puffer jacket, stood in her studio against a backdrop of draped painted fabrics in bright colours and patterns.

Emma Talbot, studio portrait, 2020

Emma Talbot

Emma Talbot lives and works in London and works primarily in drawing, painting and installation. She studied at the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art, where she is now also a painting Tutor.

In March 2020 she won the eighth Max Mara Art Prize for Women, which will result in a solo exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery in London and Collezione Maramotti in Italy, both in 2022.

Podcasts

The Roberts Institute of Art Podcasts are a place to explore, reimagine and exchange ideas through conversations. We invite artists, cultural practitioners and other thinkers to discuss themes connected to our programme.

Huma Bhabha

Huma Bhabha is a Pakistani-American sculptor based in Poughkeepsie, New York. Known for her uniquely grotesque, figurative forms that often appear dissected or dismembered, Bhabha often uses found materials in her sculptures, including styrofoam, cork, rubber, paper, wire and clay. She occasionally incorporates objects given to her by other people into her artwork. Many of these sculptures are also cast in bronze. She is equally prolific in her works on paper, creating vivid pastel drawings, eerie photographic collages and haunting print editions.

Collection Study: Huma Bhabha,

What is Love

at DRAF, Camden

Carved styrofoam and cork sculpture, stood on a very low white plinth. The sculpture has a brown body with gender non-specific features carved in, a greenish head with very large ears and dark cavities for eyes.

On Collections: Caroline Achaintre on Berlinde De Bruyckere

The artist Caroline Achaintre stands in front of one of her large tufted wall hangings wearing a electric blue jumper and bright red lipstick.

On Collections: France-Lise McGurn on Tamara de Lempicka

France-Lise McGurn sat posing in front one of her large paintings

On Collections: Jonathan Baldock on Niki de Saint Phalle

Artist Jonathan Baldock wears a black baseball cap and apron, whilst working on a big baby pink ceramic with a brush. He is stood in a studio with other ceramics and tools on a big wooden table.