The Present Absence

Emma Bremner is a disabled artist and self-described walking haunted house. Frozen by perfectionism, she abandoned art for a decade before finally receiving medication for her ADHD. Now working primarily in watercolours and metal leaf, Emma paints whimsical scenes of barn owls, armed fairy wrens, tiny mouse knights, her kleptomaniac assistance dog, and her dearly beloved ghost cat. Emma's work explores the intersections of fantasy, joy, and grief experienced in both her own life, and in 2,000-year-old ghost stories.

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This piece is an exploration of the ‘absence-presence’ of grief described by cultural geographer and deathscapes scholar, Avril Maddrell. It reflects on the absence of someone being so glaring that the absence itself becomes a presence. Like an after-image, the presence remains even once it’s gone. The many-winged owl is the after-image of this presence; the movement of the wings preserved in watercolour.