Foxgloves

Foxgloves
Published: May 30, 2013
Standfirst
Poetry and a pair of paintings by London-based artist Emma Cousin.
Body



An arm full of thumbs
Each with a mouth
Gaping like a goldfish
Gormless fat fingers
Full of plump milk teeth

Only these are yellow
And shield the eye within
An eye in a mouth on the end of a thumb
Attached to an arm
Like a nobly cactus monster
Peering through its toothy fingertips

The main limb is a spine
From which the digits spring
Each powdered with an autumnal makeup
An old woman in disguise
In her fake lashes
Her milk teeth

She smiles a kiddie grin
Wide
Through knock-kneed molars
That peer through the lashes
Nothing fits
In this blackish-red bouch

Sultry freckles speckle the lids
Sun damage
Burnt camouflage
As lids becomes lips
Mouth become eyes
With milk teeth inside





Emma Cousin is a contemporary artist whose painterly translations from objects, built structures or human observation verge on the surreal and combine traditional media and handling with the found, absurd, playful and weird.

A graduate from The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, Emma has exhibited both nationally and internationally and her work is held in private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art Wales, Fara Sabina Museum, Rome, Art Institute Sienna and Baya Museum, Hungary. She was selected for the Threadneedle Art Prize 2012, Barbican Art Trust 2012 and shortlisted for the WW Salon Prize 2012.

www.emmacousin.com


Add new comment