Portfolio
Emma Bentley Fox
Art House Residency, 2023/24
Patricia Sutcliffe Award
Silver gelatin prints & long exposure experimentation
Darkrooms are places of magic. Sites of emergence, of transformation & yearning. In queer nightlife spaces ‘Darkroom’ has been synonymous for a space for anonymous queer sex and intimacy.
Safelight explores the somatic potential of the Darkroom space, as a queer site for healing, reflection, vulnerability and intimacy. The magic of images appearing from nowhere before your eyes, and the faith and risk required of the process.
Through collaborative working with sound artist and DJ Sayang, and movement practitioner, I am exploring bringing somatic practises into the darkroom space, and exploring the sensory experiences of physically being in a darkroom. I have been experimenting with documenting this collaborative working with long exposure photography in the darkroom.
Safelight, 2023
Emergent Artist-in Residence Open Studios, The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
Acetate, photoprint, resin, streamers, spotlights, archive boxes, artist’s photographic archive collection, cotton gloves, lightbox, loupe, slide projector, slides.
As part of the Emergent Award 2023 and Artist-in Residence at The Baltic, I showed some new works in progress, titled Safelight, in the gallery space on level 1.
The tangy chemical hitting the back of your throat, the utter blackness. The feeling your way around a space, the heightening of your other senses. The loudness of small noises and your own heartbeat keeping time. A red light makes a womb of equipment and machinery that gently thrums. The temperature and closeness of the space. Repetitive slow movements, careful, considered & choreographed. All hold great potential for bringing you back into your body and regulating the nervous system. Processing.
What can recovery mean?
What does it mean to feel safe?
What conditions do we need to build intimacy?
Documenting LGBTQ+ nightlife communities, 2017-ongoing
Digital scans of 35mm film photography
Since 2017 I have been both organising and documenting LGBTQ nightlife spaces in The North of England. Above is a small selection of my archive which holds thousands of images.
From 2017-2022 I co-ran a party collective called Party Mom Society. I programmed alternative Drag artists, and performed myself in Drag.
In 2022 I received a year-long DYCP grant to archive this extensive body of work, and undertake research & development around queer archiving.
In 2023 I presented my first solo show of this work, ‘Confessions of a Party Mom’. See video below.