Emma Spence: The Art of Surviving

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Graham Little

Neil Whiteside

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

BBC One - Emma Spence: The Art of Surviving

A portrait of Emma Spence, whose art is shaped by her farming family and tragedy overcome.

A deeply personal documentary on former Young Artist of the Year Emma Spence, whose work is shaped by her farming family and by overcoming a tragedy that befell them a decade ago.

A deeply personal and reflective documentary on former Young Artist of the Year Emma Spence, whose work has been shaped by her family’s farming traditions and by overcoming a tragic accident that befell them a decade ago.
 
The programme considers her rural upbringing and the influence living and working on a farm that claimed the lives of her father and two brothers has had on her art. Her strength of character and her strong faith have been tested repeatedly since her family was rocked by tragedy in 2012, when her father Noel and brothers Graham and Nevin died in a single, devastating incident on their farm. This programme looks at how Emma has tried to cope with such a traumatic loss and what impact it has had on her art, as well as revealing the family’s story since then.
 
Nevin was well known as a professional rugby player with Ulster, and Emma reflects on how their similar outgoing personalities and careers in the public eye were at odds with the traditions of their close-knit and private rural family. Emma explores how her work conveys the juxtaposition between traditional pastoral landscapes and the realities of farming the land as seen through the eyes of those who live and work on it. She reflects on resilience and surviving loss and considers wider themes such as how grief and trauma can be reflected in and processed through making art.

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Emma Spence: The Art of Surviving

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