In her debut international solo exhibition, Ireland-based artist Emily Waszak’s assemblage works are informed by rituals of her Japanese cultural heritage, experiences of grief and loss, and the landscape of her home in rural Donegal, Ireland.

With a background in industrial weaving, Waszak produces woven works using both ancient and contemporary techniques to combine discarded industrial waste textiles and fragments of fabric with deep personal significance. Other found and natural materials used are clay ceramic vessels and ceremonial objects like animal bones, which can be used as shakers in a form of incantation to connect with the spirit world.

Ancestors, Lovers, Kin presents newly commissioned works including a large-scale weaving, film, terracotta ceramics and pottery made in the ancient Japanese Jōmon style. Through this exhibition Waszak unearths ancestral archives held within the materials and explores layers of human history and the concept of deep time.

Waszak was selected through an innovative open call to support an Irish artist in presenting their debut international solo exhibition — an initiative by Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Ireland, developed in collaboration with Southwark Park Galleries.

This exhibition is generously supported by Culture Ireland, the Paul & Louise Cooke Endowment, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Arts Council England.

Artist Bio

Emily Waszak (b. North Carolina, USA; based in Donegal, Ireland) has exhibited in Ireland and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘The Land and Others Including the Dead’, Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin (2024); ‘Grief Weaving’, Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny (2023); ‘Shadow and Fold’, Arts Itoya, Japan (2023); ‘To Guide Shadows’, Old Church Grangegorman, Dublin (2023). Her work was also exhibited in IMMA as part of the RDS Visual Arts Awards exhibition (2023–24) and ‘Thresholds to the Unseen’ at Solstice Arts, Navan, Ireland (2024).