Jersey-born artist’s work to be shown in British Museum

A JERSEY-BORN artist has had her works acquired the British Museum.

Emily Allchurch, who now lives in Hastings, is the creator of a complete set of Japanese-inspired pigment prints called “Tokyo Story”, which will form part of the museum’s permanent collection and will be showcased at the museum from next month.

The former Jersey College for Girls student is best known for her trademark digital media style of using hundreds of photographs to create new collages, which she has exhibited locally and internationally.

Ms Allchurch has commemorated significant events in Jersey, including the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, when she was selected by the States of Jersey to commemorate the Island’s involvement in the milestone anniversary.

The painting she created for that occasion, titled “Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, 3rd June 2012”, was inspired by a similarly structured masterwork from the 1700s by Francis Wheatley and Richard Paton, and was unveiled by then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall during their visit to the Island in 2012.

Pictured: *Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, 3rd June 2012‘* combined thousands of stills taken in Jersey with the Thames backdrop

Her Japanese-inspired print series was selected by the Department of Asia at the British Museum for its Japanese galleries.

“Tokyo Story” is a selection of prints Ms Allchurch created over a number of years using her own large image library. The photographs have been spliced together to reconstruct old masterwork paintings in a contemporary light, to illustrate the passage of time and changing landscapes in the city.

The series pays homage to the famed landscape artist Utagawa Hiroshige’s last work, “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (1856-58), where Ms Allchurch has transposed Hiroshige’s distinctive woodblock techniques and vivid colouring to capture the Japanense capital in contemporary digital collages.

Pictured: Archival prints from “Tokyo Story“

Before the milestone acquisition, the prints, which were first launched in 2011 in London, have been exhibited all over the world, including the in the USA, Japan, the UK and Singapore.

Ms Allchurch described it as a “very special moment” in her career.

She said: “Knowing that these works are in the custodianship of such an important institution, along with the original woodblock prints by Hiroshige, is thrilling and a very special moment in my career”.

Pictured: Emily (left of centre) with curators and archivists at the British Museum

One of her prints has also been chosen for the British Museum’s upcoming summer exhibition, “Hiroshige – Artist of the Open Road” which opens on 1 May and runs until September.

Dr Alfred Haft, project curator in the Japanese section of the Department of Asia at the British Museum, said the prints “inventively” refer to major Japanese print design while “simultaneously offering a glimpse into daily life in modern Japan”.

To coincide with the summer exhibition at the British Museum, some of Emily’s prints from the series will be exhibited in Jersey at Private and Public Gallery from 16 May, as part of the “Big in Japan” exhibition.