Intaglio Printmaker Prize Winner: Emilie Meyn

Royal College of Art MA 2022

This year’s Intaglio Printmaker Prize at the Royal College of Art was awarded to Emilie Meyn, We caught up with Emilie to learn a bit more about her winning pieces and her practise.

Tell us a bit about your winning piece and the process

The works are concerned with ideas of the feminine body and its relationship to identity, sexuality, loss and shame. All of my work is autobiographical and the figures are all representative of myself and my experiences living in a feminine body. Using image-making as an extension of myself, creating painterly monoprints from and of my body.

After you leave, 2022, Monoprint, 75x100cm

Tell us about your other works, are they similar or different

I mostly work with painting and printmaking. But recently, I’ve been experimenting with the material aspect of my work. Exploring bodily elements like skin, tissue and hair, both as the subject and material. I’m currently experimenting with hand-woven fabric and hand stitched notes. Writing is also an important part of my practice, but I use it more as a private process, almost like sketching.

My lovely parasite, 2022, Monoprint, 75x100cm

What made you get into printmaking?

I love how process-led and physical it is. I also like the constraints; having to print an image within a time limit forces me to stay present in the process.

That heavy bear who sleeps with me, 2022, Monoprint, 75 x 100cm

What would be your ultimate Intaglio wish list?

All of the inks, I use a lot and I’m always running out.

If you could own one artwork, what would it be?

Anything by Marlene Dumas, but I especially love the painting Losing (Her Meaning) (1988). It references Edvard Munch’s The Mermaid (1896)and John Everett Millais’ Ophelia (1851-52), but Dumas’ depiction (and title) feel very different. I would happily look at it every day