Emma Salmon

My name is Emma Salmon and I am an artist of Nyikina and Celtic descent. I live and work on Wurundjeri land. This recent work comes from the story of my grandad, who was an electrical linesman and industrial trade commissioner. He worked on extra high tension live lines. According to my dad, the electricity he worked with was so powerful it could ‘cut through the air’.
This year I have loved working in the metal shop. When I cut through steel I feel like maybe I can be as powerful as that electricity. When I work with metal I’m reckoning with where industrial materials come from, if they remember Country, or if they're too far gone to return. Drills, string, rust, red oxide and my hands strike disused lithographic metal plates which create new monoprints and drypoints. They then are bent and cut to become part of larger steel sculptures.
I’m trying to map the emotional landscapes of my family and I. These are the shapes, the language and words that buzz inside me. These are many throats calling out why did you say nothing?
Some of the forms are falling under the burden of burnout and depression, another day in the settler-colony. But some are ascending. What is emerging? Is it a new language or an ancient howl or both? What force is charging these works to stay upright, be here with you, and be made in the first place? I am trying to figure these things out;
I am trying to cut through the air.