Em Kettner’s miniature, figurative sculptures are contextualised by the artist’s experience of muscular dystrophy, intimacy and the fragility of embodied interdependence. She weaves silk and cotton threads onto fragmented porcelain structures, creating tiny beds and colourfully-patterned surfaces, leaving out the limbs and heads of her tiny characters. Whether sickbeds or love-beds or both, the sculptures and their figures reference the physical fragility and mutual support of Kettner’s experience. The miniature scale of her works alludes to votative objects placed on altars as pleas for the relief of pain or illness. Eroticism, religion, joy and ecstasy intertwine in the artist’s delicate figures, challenging the idea of a “normal” body and the hurtful stereotypes about the disability community.
Written by Goldsmiths CCA ...
Since 2009, François Ghebaly has presented an innovative, eclectic program of Los Angeles-based and international artists. With a history of identifying and championing diverse voices and emerging talent, the gallery’s roster has grown to include 27 artists and 2 artist estates, ranging from early career, such as Sharif Farrag and Ludovic Nkoth, to mid-career, like Christine Sun Kim, Meriem Bennani, Kelly Akashi, Farah Al Qasimi, and Genesis Belanger, to well established, including Sayre Gomez, Kathleen Ryan, Neïl Beloufa and Candice Lin as well as underground legends, like Patrick Jackson and Mike Kuchar. The gallery advances the reach of its artists’ visions by publishing exhibition catalogues and producing artist editions. Located since 2013 in a 12,000 square foot warehouse space in Downtown Los Angeles, the gallery is a mainstay of the burgeoning Arts District community, and recently expanded to New York's Lower East Side. François Ghebaly’s program demonstrates a commitment to challenging work across all media and to fostering the progressive, boundary-pushing practices of its artists. ...
