Artist 'thrilled' to feature at British Museum

A Jersey-born artist says it is "thrilling" to have her work go on display at the British Museum.

A complete series of 12 prints by Emily Allchurch, titled Tokyo Story, has been acquired for the museum's permanent collection. Two pieces will go on display from 1 May - 7 September.

One will be displayed as part of the Hiroshige: Artist of the open road exhibition and another will be in the museum's Japanese gallery.

Ms Allchurch has been a professional artist for 25 years and her chosen medium is digital collages, created from layers of photography, often recreating old prints and paintings.

Utagawa Hiroshige was a Japanese artist in the 19th Century and Ms Allchurch said Tokyo Story paid homage to his last work One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a series of 119 woodblock prints.

Ms Allchurch said: "What I love about them is the fact that they depict everyday people.

"So, although it's called the famous views - there were famous views - but it was also the places that had meaning to people at that time.

"I think that relates to me, speaks to me as an artist because I'm always interested in going beyond the tourist trail and seeing how people really live and I explore that in my work."

Ms Allchurch said it was a "thrilling and very special moment" in her career to have her work acquired by the British Museum, especially as original prints by Hiroshige were also under the museum's care.

She added the news came "completely out of the blue", although the British Museum had previously shown interest in the series since she first launched it in 2011.

Ms Allchurch said: "All of their Japanese section had admired my work, these particular works over the years.

"They just decided that this would be the time to acquire them through their permanent collections so I mean [it's] an amazing honour for me."

Ms Allchurch said much of her artwork was themed on "external exploration" which she says came from wanting to "expand her horizons" at age 18 in Jersey.

She said she was "incredibly grateful" to the Jersey government for grants that had made it possible for her to pursue her career.

Ms Allchurch added that teachers, Pat Miller and Angela Crowcroft, at Jersey College for Girls had encouraged her to become a professional artist.

She said: "They always made me feel that it was possible for me to be an artist.

"I went to art school thinking that this is something that I can pursue."

Five pieces from the Tokyo Story series will also be shown in Jersey in an exhibition opening on 16 May at Private & Public Gallery.

The Big in Japan show will include work by other contemporary artists including Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst.

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