ABOUT
@bu_graphicdesign
@bostonpainting
@pmp.bu
@bostonsculpture
@buvisualnarrative
she/her
Emily Taylor Rice
The complicated narratives and often serious realities surrounding mental health and substance use disorders are what lie at the heart of my work. I navigate and reflect on the emotional geography that surrounds these experiences through the personal lens of alcoholism. Through photographs, monotype prints, collage, and silkscreen prints on found textiles, I aim to emphasize the force and oppression of addiction while acknowledging the release that can be found through acceptance and the choice of recovery.
Through abstraction and symbolism, I create visual metaphors that illustrate emotional complexity, struggle, growth, and strength. The concepts of time and memory are incorporated into my work through repetition and pattern. Processes of embossing and printing leave their traces, similar to how emotional upheavals leave scars that cannot be erased. Pigments collide with but also delicately caress surfaces, emulating feelings of both desperation and relief. I use printmaking as an artistic means of communication and as a form of activism. Addiction does not discriminate, and I aim to provoke thoughtful responses, fostering empathy and understanding.
There is beauty in damage. Breakage and disruption in my pieces invite an examination of the painful aspects of addiction while rebuilding the works through collage allows for a new narrative to emerge. This interplay between deconstruction and reconstruction speaks to the space between dying and living. I highlight the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual transformations that can take place from addiction to recovery. Often an uncomfortable subject, I strive to dismantle assumptions and break down barriers to initiate truthful and constructive dialogue.
Silkscreen on found fabric, 32 × 24 in.
Silkscreen on found fabric, 33 × 24 in.
Woodcut and embossment, 29½ × 43 in.