Emma Talbot, winner of the eighth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, premieres a new body of work at London’s Whitechapel Gallery in June. Following its presentation at Whitechapel Gallery, The Age/L’Età will travel to Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy (23 October 2022–19 February 2023).
The Age/L’Età consists of animation, free-hanging painted silk panels, three-dimensional work and drawings. The work explores themes of representation and ageing, power and governance, and attitudes towards nature. For the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Talbot imagines a future environment where humankind encounters the disastrous consequences of late capitalism and must look towards more ancient and holistic ways of crafting and belonging – that rethink ancient power structures and celebrate the natural world – in order to survive.
The exhibition is the result of a bespoke six-month Italian residency, organised by Collezione Maramotti. Following receipt of the biannual prize in 2020, Talbot travelled through Reggio Emilia, Catania and Rome, researching textile craftmanship, permaculture, classical mythology and exploring the myriad historic sites and institutions that inform the new body of work.
The Age/L’Età takes Gustav Klimt’s painting Three Ages of Woman (1905), which Talbot had the opportunity to see first-hand during her residency, as its starting point. Klimt depicts an elderly woman holding her head in an expression of apparent shame. In her new work, Talbot reimagines this elderly figure as a woman with agency.
The Age/L’Età, Max Mara Art Prize for Women: Emma Talbot, 30 June – 4 September 2022, Whitechapel Gallery, London; 23 October 2022 – 19 February 2023, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia
