Emma Fielden’s practice is a meditation on infinity, time, memory and transformation. Her work explores liminal spaces of the tangible and the intangible, the macro and the micro, the infinite and the intimate. Grounded in materiality, she engages with substances like metal, stone and ink, exploring their capacity for change. Her practice is driven by process, where a final artwork is a testament to the actions and decisions involves in its creation. Through her practice, she explores the dynamic relationship between materials and ideas, with her body acting as a bridge between their physical properties and the abstract concepts that unfold through her engagement with them.
Fielden holds an Associate Diploma in Music Performance (1995), an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design (2006), and she is a specialist hand-engraver. In 2023, she returned to formal study and will soon complete her Master of Fine Arts (Research) at the University of New South Wales.
Her work has been exhibited regularly since 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Hours of Stars’ (2024, Passage, Sydney), ‘The Bells’ (2021, Sydney), ‘Coalescence’ (2021, Mosman Art Gallery) and ‘An Immeasurable Distance’ (2019, The Lock-Up). Recent group exhibitions include ‘Infinite: Dobell Drawing Biennial 2024’ (Art Gallery of NSW), ‘The Unseen’ (2023, Blacktown Arts Centre), ‘Radical Slowness’ (2022, The Lock-Up), ‘Attending’ (2022, Latrobe Regional Gallery), ‘On Earth’ (2021, QUT Art Museum), and ‘To Have and To Hold’ (2019, Art Gallery of South Australia).
Emma has received awards including Paramor Prize Mayoral Award (2017, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre), and the National Contemporary Jewellery Award (2014). She was a finalist the Mosman Art Prize (2024), National Works on Paper (2022, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery) and the NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship (2017, Artspace). She was a resident at Parramatta Artists’ Studios from 2016 to 2021. In 2018, she was awarded a fellowship to attend the prestigious Art Omi Artist’s Residency in Upstate New York.
Image: Still image from ‘Cleave’ (2018).