'Pop It Like It’s Hot'
Emma Gibbons
Reem Gallery has worked with Emma Gibbons for quite some time, but had never done a solo show with her.. until now! It was my absolute joy to work with Emma on her debut solo London show in June 2022.
I was very familiar with Emma’s work, having found new homes for several of her iconic ‘Addiction No.5’ works, and I couldn’t wait to do a show with her. I found her stand at The Other Art Fair earlier in the year and we had a very overexcited 10-minute conversation where the phrases ‘pink walls’, ‘glitter ball chaos’, and ‘so many lollies everywhere’ were repeated more than once.
That glittery, pink, lollipop vision was unveiled on the 2nd June at Reem Gallery Soho and you can see photos below by our wonderful photographer Sian Cook for evidence!
Here was the press release:
‘Pop it like it’s Hot’ is set to a the tall glass of lemonade to cool down the capital! Pushing her popsicle series even further, Emma is “hoping to create a pop-art wonderland in the upmarket setting of Reem’s new Ham Yard gallery. The show will be dripping with colour - a saturated clubland glittering rainbow of excess.”
Dripping with eye-popping colour, the new and exclusive body of work continues the artist’s exploration of consumption, addiction and excess featuring 20,000 handmade glitter capsule pills across all the 3D artworks.
“Our capitalist society functions on excess; we are always seeking ‘more’. So this exhibition is a comment on consumerism and our inclination towards excessive consumption. And through that, the lens tilts towards addiction, which again, is everywhere in our current culture and society. Addiction to substances but also to things….There's a million and one things to be addicted to - including art!” says Gibbons.
Gibbons continues, “My work is a celebration of colour, and a way to connect people through shared joy… There is a huge ‘over the top’ element to the work. They are ‘extra’, ‘excessive’; both in their use of colour and texture…Pills fascinate me on many levels. As an artistic medium they’re amazingly versatile. They serve as tiny vehicles for both colour and texture and have this incredible 3D quality that screams modernity. They’re fun! And when combined with resin, pigments and glitter they’re almost unparalleled - there’s no other medium like them”.
With fans including Hollywood A-listers, such as Margot Robbie, to favourite British TV personalities including Zoe Ball and Dawn French, it’s hard not to be seduced by the vibrant resin, pop culture references, and glittering pill capsules.
Who wouldn’t want to see that?!
The day before the show opened, Emma and I sat in the gallery surrounded by her work and disco balls and we spoke for nearly two hours (!). I spent the following morning editing it down to a palatable 30 mins which you can listen to by clicking the button below.
When you look at Emma’s work you’re hard pressed to not immediately see the thousands of pill capsules filled with glitter that make up her sculputral pieces. Those pills hold so much more than glitter. Firstly, they hold the hundreds of hours that Emma has spent filling each one by hand, she tells me she can make 2000 in one day. Secondly, they represent Emma’s own journey with alcoholism and, as a sober alcoholic, her mission to educate, communicate, and open up healthy dialogue across generations about mental wellbeing and addiction.
Her work is fun, absolutely it is, but it also offers a profound commentary on the hedonistic, consumerist society that we find ourselves in.
Emma’s work is such a reflection of her, and not just because she currently has pink hair. It is sparkly, joyful, welcoming, and cheeky. It also offers such a kind introduction to thinking about these really important topics. To think of consumerism, of the consumption of designer products, as an addiction akin to the addiction to pills (a comparison which could be made looking at the Chanel No.5 bottles filled with capsules) might feel uncomfortable, or it might not even cross one’s mind. Emma places all the ingredients of these discussions into her work, but the outcome leaves no opinion or overarching judgement, the artwork can be appreciated on a spectrum of superficiality. As Emma said in our interview, ‘art is whatever you want it to be’.
As I write this, we are on track to sell out the show and I am delighted that these works will be going to homes all over the world to brighten up bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.
Install shots below by Sian Cook Photography
