Emma Carlow

​​​

playful 2024

​

Emma has been making ceramic whistles since 2022 when she became fascinated by them while researching global folk art. She realised that most cultures have some form of whistle and decided to learn how to make one and ended up making seven working whistles in one evening. A friend quipped that Emma should make one each day for a year. 

 

The following day Emma decided that that was a good idea. She studied the whistle collections online at the British Museum, the V&A and the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe and used them as inspiration for her growing menagerie. She showed a quarter of them at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2023.

 

These whistles are the latest in her collection and are inspired by the fantastic paintings found in medieval bestiaries. Bestiaries are illustrated compendiums of animals, birds and rocks. Each illustration was usually accompanied by a description of the animal's characteristics and a moral lesson. Emma was fascinated by the fact that in some cases the artist illustrating the animal may never have seen the animal in question and was working from descriptions from ancient Greek texts. This led to some very humorous images and assumptions, for example, an alligator was sometimes thought to have six legs and elephants were said to have no knees and therefore had to sleep standing up.

​

​

Click images for details and if you are interested in any of Emma Carlow's work please enquire below​​​​​