HALF-EARTH | EMILY JONES

Bi e a,
Bi e e, ba be, bi e i,
Ba be bi, bi e o, ba be bi bo
Bi e u, bu, ba be bi bo bu,
Ci e a,
Ci e e, ca ce, ci e i,
Ca ce ci, ci e o, ca ce ci co
Ci e u, cu, ca ce ci co cu
Di e a,
Di e e, da de, di e i,
Da de bi, di e o, da de di do
Di e u, du, da de di do du,
Effe e a,
Effe e e, fa fe, effe e i,
Fa fe fi, effe e o, fa fe fi fo,
Effe e u, fu, fa fe fi fo fu
Bi e a,
Bi e e, ba be, bi e i,
Ba be bi, bi e o, ba be bi bo
Bi e u, bu, ba be bi bo bu,
Ci e a,
Ci e e, ca ce, ci e i,
Ca ce ci, ci e o, ca ce ci co
Ci e u, cu, ca ce ci co cu

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

These are the words used to describe Half-Earth (2017), exhibition by Emily Jones which includes the large mosaic of the same name in which the artist, taking up the tradition and aesthetics of ancient Greece, proposes a contemporary version. The inscriptions that could normally be observed on the mosaics of Ancient Greece are replaced by an inscription in Helvetica Neue: “They were eating out of our hands”. The rest of the mosaic is decorated with a series of frets enriched by representations of colored fish. The artist’s final intervention was to drill holes in the mosaic and the wall of the gallery on which it is exhibited: with this small gesture, it seems that the artist wants to suggest an imminent threat.

That which seems like a delirium of a child while experimenting with the alphabet or a Dadaist poet, are instead the words of the protagonist of the Japanese cartoon, Little Meg the Witch Girl from 1981, the story of a group of young witches. The strange nursery rhyme, perhaps a magic recipe, ends with Nothing in this world is indifferent to us. It is in these words that the common thread that holds Jones’ work together can be traced: every element that enters the artist’s orbit of interest is enclosed in the same gaze so as to unfold a series of concerns that seem to emerge with delicacy and melancholy on the mosaic surface.

The artist’s work therefore consists of a combination of writing and sculpture with the aim of suggesting a thought that cannot be understood according to an analytical or scientific standard but rather whose communication is based on the sharing of a feeling. Reading again the phrases of the witch Bia while looking at the mosaic, we understand that the attempt to reach a single definition is not possible and is only a chimera of positivist thought. Approaching each attempt to reach the truth, it does nothing but notice the gaps and voids that characterize it. Emily Jones with Half-Earth proposes the rediscovery of the feeling that is emanated in space without a hierarchy, perhaps without a consequential logical connection, but as a voice that can enchant, and just like the poet with the sounds of language, generate a sense recognition and sharing.

(…) Ca ce ci, ci e o, ca ce ci co
Ci e u, cu, ca ce ci co cu

Nothing in this world is indifferent to us

Emily Jones
Half-Earth, 2017
Glass tile mosaic, 500x300cm
© Image courtesy VEDA and the artist

Emily Jones, Half-Earth (2017), Glass tile mosaic, 500x300cm, swallow nests: chewed bread and glue, ball-jointed doll with rabbit coat
Installation view from Half-Earth at VEDA
© Image courtesy VEDA and the artist

26/04/2023