Exhibitions

Emma Levitt

In the Presence of Absence

Emma Levitt's solo installation investigates the experience of loss, the process of grief, and the longing for connection.

© 2015 Emma Jane Levitt, (detail 1) Untitled, fiber. Courtesy of the artist.
© 2015 Emma Jane Levitt, (detail 1) Untitled, fiber. Courtesy of the artist.
  • May 7 - 28, 2015
  • Opening: Thursday, May 7

In the Presence of Absence explores, both literally and metaphorically, the ways we are connected to one another and to place. This body of work centers on a life shattering experience. On a beautiful July evening in 2013, Emma Levitt returned home after being away for a few hours to discover that her partner was not asleep in their bed – but was, in fact, dead. Chris was young and fit, but at 41 he had a massive heart attack. His death was sudden and unexpected.

Grappling for what might console her, Levitt was determined to grieve in her own way and at her own pace. Finding a tactile expression for her loss, a method to keep her partner close, a manner in which to mark and to pass time, and a way in which to hold space for the grief, Emma decided to knit her way through the experience.

Levitt’s mother and grandmother were long-time knitters who had taught her how to knit when she was a child. She gathered together all of her lost partner’s clothing and began to cut every article – jeans, briefs, shirts, and ties – into narrow strips that would become a bounty of yarn. She acquired huge wooden needles, rolled the cloth ribbons into big balls, and began to knit. Fifteen months later, she had a mural sized rectangle, a gigantic comforter. In the Presence of Absence consists of a 14 by 16 foot hanging knit mural and a series of monochromatic embossed works on paper that hold the shadowy imprints of handkerchiefs.

The show will hang in Gallery4Culture through May and will travel to the John Sommers Gallery at the University of New Mexico in September 2015.


About the Artist

Emma Levitt is a Seattle based artist working in textiles, printmaking, photography and artist books. She has been recognized with the Clowes Foundation Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center, a 4Culture Artists Project grant, and both the ArtBridge Fellowship and Seattle Print Arts Scholarship from Pratt Fine Art Center. Her artwork has been acquired by individuals and institutions including the Special Collections Library at Washington University in St. Louis, Seattle Print Arts and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Levitt teaches at North Seattle College, Pratt Fine Art Center and the Frye Art Museum. Levitt earned a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of New Mexico.