Artist Emii Alrai will produce a new commission for Dawes Twine Works in West Coker, the UK’s only surviving 19^th century twine works, and historic producer of twine for the maritime industry. Mimicking geological forms, ancient ruins and artefacts, her works will look at the role of map tables in the lands that empires conquer and their relationship to the maritime industry.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Emii Alrai is an artist and trained museum registrar whose work spans material investigation in relation to memory, critique of the western museological structure and the complexity of ruins. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, her work operates as large-scale realms built in relation to bodies of research which concern archaeology and the natural environments objects are excavated from. Weaving in oral histories, inherited nostalgia and the details of language to question the rigidity of Empire and the power of hierarchy to interpolate the static presence of history. Past solo exhibitions include Lithics at Quench Gallery, Margate (2024); A Core of Scar, The Hepworth Wakefield & iniva (2022); and Reverse Defence at Workplace Foundation in Newcastle (2022). Alrai’s work is held in public collections including the British Museum, London; Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds; the Arts Council Collection, London; the Government Art Collection, and The Hepworth Wakefield.

ARTIST WEBSITE