Emily Speed (born 1979,

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

) is an artist based in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. Her practice spans drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image and performance. It explores the relationship between architecture and the human body. Speed has shown her work at

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbar ...

Open Eye Gallery Open Eye Gallery is a photography gallery and archive in Liverpool, UK that was established in 1977. It is housed in a purpose-built building on the waterfront at Mann Island, its fourth location. Open Eye Gallery comprises an exhibition space ...

(Liverpool) and

Tate St Ives Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture ...

, among other places. She has been shortlisted for the

Liverpool Art Prize The Liverpool Art Prize is contemporary art competition open to professional artists based in the Liverpool City Region area of the United Kingdom. Background The inaugural competition took place in 2008. The competition was inspired by the Turner ...

and the

Northern Art Prize The Northern Art Prize was an annual arts prize, established in 2006 and first awarded in 2007, that was created to celebrate contemporary artists practising in the North of England, which it defined as the North, the North West and Yorkshire and Hu ...

Education

Speed gained a BA (Hons) in Drawing & Painting from

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

in 2001 and an MA in Fine Art: Drawing from

University of the Arts London University of the Arts London is a collegiate university in London, England, specialising in arts, design, fashion and the performing arts. It is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea Coll ...

Wimbledon College of Art Wimbledon College of Arts, formerly Wimbledon School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London specialising in theatre, screen and performance art. It is located in Wimbledon and Merton Park, South West London. H ...

in 2006.

Work

Emily Speed’s work explores the relationship between buildings and bodies. She is interested in how we inhabit and are sheltered by architecture, both physically and psychologically, describing the way in which people are "shaped by the buildings they have occupied and how a person occupies their own psychological space." She is drawn to the parts of buildings less often dwelt in: recesses, corners, stairs, passageways, entrances and exits.

Sculpture and installation

Speed's practice encompasses small and large-scale sculpture and installation, from tiny hand-made dwellings, to larger manufactured interventions in architectural space. Much of her sculptural and installation work is site-specific, considering not only the building within which the work is shown, its architecture and its history, but also the locality of that building. For example, in 'Mattdress & Drawers' (2011), created at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Speed used the furniture from the old halls of residence at what used to be Bretton College (a teacher training college), to reveal a forgotten part of the history of the building and its former occupants. At Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, she created the site-specific work 'Nothing is Finished, Nothing is Perfect, Nothing Lasts' (2012), a sculpture that was integrated into the walls of the building to make it look as if it was unfolding at the edges. Several of Speed's installations create small spaces into which the viewer can enter. Examples include 'Reading Room (Box Man)' (2011) and 'Lady Garden' (2013). Human Castle - 7698822806

Performance

Speed cites the work 'Inhabitant' (2009), created during a residency at the

Atelierhaus Salzamt The Atelierhaus Salzamt (lit: "Studio House Salt Authority") is a cultural institution in the city of Linz, Austria founded in 2009. Its stated goal is to promote and support international exchange programs in the field of visual arts. The house ...

, as an important turning point in her practice. A higgledy-piggledy architectural costume made from recycled cardboard, 'Inhabitant' allowed Speed to realise that "if the body is actually in the work then it’s a totally different kind of practice", which transformed her approach and "led to every other work since.” Speed began to work with performers in 2012, with the work 'Human Castle', performed by ten acrobats in the shadow of

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...

. She worked again with acrobats in 'Build Up' (2013), exploring the balance and endurance of the human body to create and collapse architecture-like structures. Working with costumed performers has become, for Speed, a means of exploring different aspects of the human relationship with the built environment. In ‘A Parade of Architectural Commas’ (2017), commissioned by and performed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, five performers made their way through the landscapes of the sculpture park, dressed respectively as a chapel, a ruin, an obelisk, a pyramid, and a grotto. These five architectural archetypes refer to those often used as

follies ''Follies'' is a Musical theater, musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on t ...

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

in the eighteenth century, and the title of the work is taken from

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

's writing on this subject. With Yorkshire Sculpture Park itself a former eighteenth-century estate, 'A Parade of Architectural Commas' served to bring to life the history of this landscaped parkland. 'Rooms Designed for a Woman' (2017), again using performers dressed in and occupying small cardboard buildings, is a film that explores the relationship between architecture and the female body, drawing attention to discrepancies between those who design architectural spaces and those who use them. Speed's costumes have been called "

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

-style" and her work is often noted for its humour. Although Speed acknowledges this affinity with Dada, particularly in terms of humour and working across media, she does not see it as a straightforward relationship, since she sees her work as more personal than political. Writing for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, Skye Sherwin draws attention to the "oddball" comedy at play in Speed's work, as well as its ability to allow reflection on "the frailty of things".

Artist's books

Making books is an important part of Speed's practice. When she was resident at the Women’s Studio Workshop in New York State in 2007 she created one of her first editions of books called 'Unfolding Architecture', which, as she says "brought together imagery, sculpture and text". Other bookworks include 'A House Like Me' (2010) and 'The Cake Book' (2015).

Use of media

Speed considers drawing to be "the way in which I think about all the work I make, whether it is on paper, in wood or a bunch of acrobats in a pile." Aside from this, cardboard is her most frequently used material, something she describes as "a bit special for me", particularly enjoying working with recycled cardboard, which holds traces of its history over its surface.

Influences

Speed cites many influences, both artistic and literary. They include:

Gordon Matta Clark Gordon Matta-Clark (born Gordon Roberto Matta-Echaurren; June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. ...

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...

Kobo Abe Kobo may refer to: Places * Kobo (woreda), a district in Ethiopia ** Kobo, Ethiopia, a town * Kōbo Dam, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan * Mount Kōbō, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan People First name * Kōbō Abe (1924–1993), pseudonym of Japanese w ...

, Mark Z. Daniewleski,

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

(in particular his short story, The Burrow),

Marcel Aymé Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist and playwright, who also wrote screenplays and works for children. Biography Marcel André Aymé was born in Joigny, in the Burgundy region of France, the youngest of si ...

, and Edwin Abbott (in particular his 1884 novella,

Flatland ''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dime ...

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* ''Emily Speed: Make Shift'', Bothy Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 16 July - 18 September 2011 * ''Emily Speed: Nothing is Finished, Nothing is Perfect, Nothing Lasts'', Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, 30 March - 2 September 2012 * ''Emily Speed: Body Builders'', Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas, 21 October - 3 December 2016 * ''Emily Speed: Rooms Designed for a Woman,'' Tate St Ives, 25 January - 27 September 2020 * ''Emily Speed'',

Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corpo ...

, 25 September 2021 – 5 June 2022

Group exhibitions

* Commissions Programme,

Edinburgh Art Festival The Edinburgh Art Festival is an annual visual arts festival, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during August and coincides with the Edinburgh International and Fringe festivals. The Art Festival was established in 2004, and receives public funding fr ...

, with 'Human Castle', 2012 * ''Head to Head: Hayley Newman and Emily Speed'',

Castlefield Gallery The Castlefield Gallery is an art gallery in Manchester, England, located at 2 Hewitt Street, Knott Mill, Manchester. The gallery, a resource for contemporary visual artists The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmak ...

, Manchester, 1 March - 7 April 2013 * Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London, 18 April – 15 May 2013 * ''Cities of Ash'', g39, Cardiff, 11 July - September 2014 * '' eonstruct'', Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1 April - 25 June 2017 *''Slight Works'', The

Fruitmarket Gallery The Fruitmarket Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since its opening in 1974, the gallery has become part of the Scottish contemporary art scene. After a period of closure to undergo a significant renovation, the ga ...

, Edinburgh, 20–25 February 2018

Collections (selected)

Arts Council Collection The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

, London *

Women's Studio Workshop Women's Studio Workshop (WSW) is a nonprofit visual arts studio and private press offering residencies and educational workshops, located in Rosendale, New York. The workshop was founded in 1974 by Ann Kalmbach, Tatana Kellner, Anita Wetzel, ...

, NY State

Awards

* Liverpool Art Prize 2010, shortlist * Bar-Tur Award 2011, shortlist * Northern Art Prize 2013, shortlist