20th - 28th September 2025

Asylum Studios, Bentwaters, is in Suffolk- but it could be anywhere.

Emma Withers has had her studio here for 20 years. This exhibition of paintings and installation

(her first for 7 years), represents both a sense of place and a state of mind. Neither here, nor there

…both inside and outside.

It is a safe place that recognises threat, and the possibility of a safe place within. Unseen.

Everything changes, nothing stays the same.

Huge representational murals on paper and canvas show mythical visions of the times. One shows

that humans share with animals “the creatureliness of life, and a fellowship of sadness”.… a family of

lions, fighting for survival .

The second diptych shows a future world where only fish and birds survive.

An installation includes many decommissioned musical instruments provided by the Suffolk County Music Service. No longer suitable for students, Emma Withers has been offered the 17 cellos which

she has arranged into a giant music box, or “Cell-O-Cell”. Within the walls, it is a place to be private.

People, including children, are invited to interact and to pluck the strings of the cellos, so that a

drone of many strings will reverberate into the wider space. It is a shelter inside the gallery, a studio,

a forest, or a call to prayer… another possible world.

Another installation of approximately 100 silent flutes is called “Where the Wind Blows”.

An evening reception will open the exhibition on Friday 19th of September from 5pm until 8pm