Install Gate Of Horn Exhibition, Carl Freeman Gallery 2025
Emma Franks (b. 1972), visual artist and feminist, was raised in Essex and now lives and works in London. Emma studied Fine Art at Brighton University (1994), Art Psychotherapy at Hertfordshire University (1999) and Studio Painting at Turps Banana Art School (2023). Franks previously worked within state education and the National Health Service, in addition to being a practising artist.
About My work
My work is autobiographical and expresses my lived experience as a Jewish woman diagnosed with a rare autoimmune illness and neurological conditions, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Autism, ADHD and Misophonia. I also explore my experiences as a mother and an older woman.
These themes are channeled into the art works and I believe the broad breadth of mediums I use reflects this. Artist books, performance, costume, dry points, paintings, these are the many ways I am able to tackle what feels like an often overwhelming barrage of incoming stimuli which can range from hugely distressing to highly euphoric. As these conditions are sensory and bodily focused which affect the nervous system, art offers a release and an opportunity to expel.
Art is and always has been a life saving coping mechanism and a crucial part of the scaffolding I use to help me navigate this world. I experience the world in technicolour and often in extremes, the art work reflects this. For example, bodies are often exaggerated, emotions are larger than life, colours are vibrant and images are confronting.
Without knowing that I had a health condition (it took the medical doctors 8 years to diagnose) nor that Misaphonia was even a condition or that I had Audhd, I grew up believing I was a broken human being. I never felt I fitted in socially, was constantly overwhelmed, in physical pain and challenged by everything and everyone. Being a Jewish woman also fits neatly into the category of experiencing life as an outsider and adds another dimension to being a marginalised member of society.
As a result I make work that is vulnerable, sensitive, bodily, bold, funny and emotional and I have found the following figures from mythology and ancient movements as useful protagonists in my personal story. Lilith, Chalcolithic figurines and monsters are recurrent archetypes that I am drawn to and feature heavily depending on what is most present in my life, interchangeably using them as influences and inspirations.
Lilith
I often feel disempowered by my various conditions and much of my work is an attempt to empower myself and feel powerful. Manifestation and Fake it until you make it!
Lilith is a good protagonist to use because she is an established feminist icon, often used by Jewish feminist women. Lilith embodies female rage, power and rebellion. The particular image of Lilith that I use is taken from an ancient incantation bowl from 500AD exhibited in the Feminist Power Exhibition at The British Museum in 2022. I have used this image as a source of inspiration many times and she became the founding mother of the first fictional feminist religion that I created for the performance ‘The 13th Tribe’. Lilith work was exhibited in ‘The Temple of Lilith’ Gallery as part of the Gate of Horns Exhibition curated by Hettie Judah in 2025.
Chalcolithic Figurines
Ever since I visited Nicosia Museum in Cyprus as part of an art residency with the Cyprus School Of Art I’ve been using ancient figurines from the Chalcolithic period. I am drawn to these depictions of the female form as they are a realistic recreation of the body. Curvaceous, fully breasted and not yet objectifying and changing the body to fit an idealised male standard.
Monsters
Monsters are useful to use as another means of self-expression. I have a condition called Misaphonia. This is a neurological condition that generates a Fight and Flight response to certain sounds. I have had this condition since the age of 12 but didn’t know until my late 40’s that this condition existed and believed I was the only person in the world who experienced certain noises as attacks on my body. This resulted in me carrying a lot of shame and embarrassment and I never spoke about my experiences with anyone. To find out that Misaphonia is a recognised condition experienced by many people globally was hugely validating. However I am still living with the daily barrage of painful noises and navigating living in a very noisy world. This invariably affects my relationships and when I have a Misaphonia ‘attack’ I am stuck in Fight mode and rage is the predominant emotion. After I have recovered from a Misaphonia attack and my cognitive function returns I start to feel the shame and embarrassment of how I have behaved in the company of others. I then identify myself as behaving like a monster.. Another dimension of using monsters in my work is the experience of being a Jewish woman. Jews are often depicted as monsters within antisemitic literature and imagery and also Jewish women are caricatured as loud, dominating, brash and overbearing and somewhat monstrous.
Truth, honesty and breaking taboos around womanhood, neurological conditions and illness is very important in my work. I have had to hide my challenges and submit to the expectations on women to fit a certain submissive role in society. It is vital that my work does not hide my own reality of living with so many challenging conditions in an ableist society and my work fulfils this role.
Current Exhibitions, Inhabiting Bodies AGBI, London
Previous Exhibitions,The Books Of Lilith, APT Gallery, Deptford, London, Gates Of Horns: Myths of Resistance, Symbols of Defiance’, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate 2025, Bow Arts Open Call, Nunnery Gallery 2024. Bow, Blink, Safe House Peckham 2024, Ripe Banana Leavers Show 2023, Naissance Re-Naissance Unit Gallery London 2023, and Recreational Grounds VII (2023); Love, Celebration and the Road Ahead, TJ Boulting (2022); Mood Times Ten, Fitzrovia Gallery 2022; Arundel Contemporary 2018 and The Stratford Gallery 2018.
Publications
https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/EBYJHC4U5ARIWFYTJ6PR/full
Podcasts
videos
https://click.email.vimeo.com/u/?qs=0d6a16df2c5087fa0c2a60fbf13077acbc99c10acb6523eb8013b8607f6429cf06f33aeb07c918fb5f165074b6141c630710de1554ceb00ece93bf34d091aae6