Image courtesy of Nyklaus Thorn
Artist Statement
My practice has begun with collage and assemblage for a long time, not simply ways of making imagery, but as a structure/philosophy behind everything I make. Layering and rearranging materials becomes the starting point for masks, costumes, puppets and performances, where figures can migrate between paper, object, prop, and embodiment.
I am interested in the moment something constructed can begin to feel alive. Through handmade and tactile processes, I make painted forms, sculptural faces, stitched textiles and awkward bodies made from repurposed materials. Rather than concealing the mechanics of making, I like characters to carry visible seams, joins and imperfections, as though they are in a continual state of becoming something. Rather than pretending there is one coherent version underneath, my work accepts that people are layered composites; continually changing and evolving.
My work is grounded in my everyday experiences of self-consciousness and the peculiar awareness of allowing oneself to be seen. Drawing from masquerade, historical costume and traditions of absurdist theatre, I use performance as a means of confronting my personal anxieties whilst reframing them as moments of transformation. For me, humour and playfulness become a way of approaching vulnerability without diminishing it. The figures that emerge are often exaggerated, colourful, and strangely familiar, like a childhood TV character gone awry. They stumble through social rituals with an earnestness that allows absurdity and tenderness to coexist.
As images increasingly mediate our experience of one another, I find myself returning to the idea of imagery becoming body. There is a recurring use of doubles or "doppels", as I like to call them, often appearing as doubles or echoes of one another across different states: mirroring how we often exist as multiple versions.
Untitled collage experimentation, 2026
I Wish to Sit in the Corner with You, performance view, Martin Hall Gallery, Loughborough, 2026
Image courtesy of Charlotte Shearman Smith
Biography
Emily Hought (b. 2004) is a UK-based performance and mixed-media artist. Her practice moves between collage, print, costume, sculpture, puppetry and live performance. Beginning with layered paper constructions that she develops into characters. These figures migrate across different materials and into embodied performance, creating temporary personas that exist somewhere between image and body.
Working with textiles and repurposed materials, like cardboard, Emily combines craft processes with theatrical play. She draws from traditions of masquerade, historical dress, and absurdist performance, driven by an interest in animation and the emotional potential of obviously handmade forms. Through awkward bodies and recurring doubles, she creates performances that combine humour and play with a vulnerability that is silently disarming.
Emily graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Loughborough University in 2025. She is an AFF Breakthrough Artist Fellow (2025–26), and her work has been recently presented at Humber Street Gallery, Martin Hall Gallery, Two Queens Gallery and Loughborough University.
© Emily Hought