Today the world is losing its architectural cultural heritage faster than it can be documented. While we should strive to preserve as much as possible of our collective past, we cannot save everything. One option is to document heritage before it is lost; this is where Jemma's practice comes into play. Using various printmaking processes her work acts as an artistic documentation of abandoned spaces which have historic and social significance.
Drawing underpins her practice and informs her printmaking processes. Specialising in etching and stone lithography, these methods resonate with the subjects she comes to find herself recording. They use an enforced decay, whereby acids erode metal and physically alter the surface of a limestone, echoing with the natural decay of the crumbling architectural forms she draws.
Jemma has recently been granted a second Elizabeth Greenshield Award to research into industrial archaeology and continue documenting our fading heritage. She exhibits widely, both national and internationally with highlights being the Royal Academy Summer Show, London Original Print Fair the RWA and the Great Print Exhibition.
Alongside her practice Jemma teaches traditional printmaking at the University of the West of England and co-runs Bristol Print Collective.