all the beauty we cannot see
SALA exhibition at Hither & Yon
Opening August 4th
Emma Neill
Emma explores the beauty in the everyday with her artworks ranging from realistic representations to distorted views through landscape paintings. We engulf ourselves so often in work and spend so much time with artificial beauty that nature and its beauty so easily gets forgotten. Society constantly reminds us of new trends and ways to improve our surroundings, leading us to overlook the beauty we are naturally surrounded by.
There are so many details around us that we so commonly miss yet those are the aspects of everyday life that make life so special. If we turn an eye to this and focus on changing our surroundings to keep up with societal expectations then we are losing the true beauty that has been at our doorstep all along.
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Elise Clements
What is beauty? Is it a mere set of societal rules and expectations that we are taught to adhere by in order to be deemed enough? Or is it ultimately defined by the eye of the beholder, the product of perspective?
We exist in a world where we are constantly reminded of our flaws and encouraged to turn to often destructive behaviours in order to feel we measure up to societies’ beauty standards. In ‘all the beauty we cannot see’, Clements explores the ways in which these unrealistic beauty ideals ultimately influence and shape our sense of self. She challenges the notion that our imperfections need to be fixed, instead suggesting that these ‘‘flaws’ are actually just elements of beauty that we are taught not to see.
