ABOUT
Emily Zarse is an artist working with textile-based sculpture and surface. Using silk, dye, stitching, binding, and repair, her practice explores how materials register pressure, accumulation, and bodily time.
Her work approaches textiles as sculptural surfaces rather than functional fabric, emphasizing compression, tension, and restraint. Recent projects move toward a spatial engagement, considering how softness and constraint operate within and against architectural conditions.
Earlier work focused on pregnancy, birth, and caregiving through archival research and material investigation. While these projects were more explicitly research-driven, their concerns with care, maintenance, and bodily transformation continue to inform her material approach.
Alongside her studio practice, Zarse has developed curatorial and archival projects grounded in exhibition-making, research, and public engagement. This background informs her sensitivity to sequencing, display, and the relationship between objects and viewers.
She lives and works in Bloomington, Indiana.