KREFELD.- With Psyche, British artist Emma Talbot, MBE (*1969, Stourbridge; lives and works in London and Reggio Emilia) presents a new site-specific installation at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum (KWM). The exhibition is part of the tenth edition of the Collection Satellite series, which since 2018 has brought contemporary artistic positions into dialogue with the collection and architecture of the Kunstmuseen Krefeld. Talbot has created an ensemble of new works that engage with Johan Thorn Prikker’s mural Lebensalter (Ages of Life) (1923), radically rethinking its vision of a cyclical life process.

Internationally acclaimed for her large-scale, visually striking installations made of painted silk, Talbot combines painting, sculpture, drawing, and animation into complex spatial environments. Her visual language merges figuration, ornament, and text, unfolding narrative structures in which individual experiences connect with pressing contemporary issues. Themes such as birth, death, care, and loss coexist with reflections on power, ecology, and technological transformation.

While Thorn Prikker’s Ages of Life is shaped by rhythm, the seasons, and continuity, Talbot proposes a counter-image: a world defined by simultaneity, marked by climate crisis, geopolitical tensions, and the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. The notion of a stable cycle gives way to an open, multilayered network. At the center of the installation is monumental painted silk hanging that unfolds within the space. Rather than obscuring Thorn Prikker’s murals, it enters into dialogue with them. Openings in the fabric and loosely suspended panels create sightlines and overlaps — a visual interplay of foreground and background that disrupts the clear order of the historical painting.

“With Emma Talbot, we are presenting an internationally recognized artist whose work translates key questions of our time into a distinctive and powerful visual language,” says director Katia Baudin. “Her dialogue with Johan Thorn Prikker — an important figure for both our collection and the museum’s history — exemplifies our programmatic approach: to rethink the collection through contemporary perspectives, in this case by juxtaposing two universal artistic visions.”

The painted silk reveals a dense, color-intensive imagery: scenes of birth, labor, care, and loss interweave with plants, animals, extreme weather events, and technological structures.

The cosmos also plays a role, with motifs of planets, asteroids, and speculative forms of human production in space.

The result is a network in which the human, the non-human, and the technological are inseparably intertwined. Textile and sculptural elements further expand the installation: a woven moon stands out against a darkened wall, while a floating, metallic “asteroid” alludes to new forms of resource extraction beyond Earth. On the floor lie fragile, handcrafted objects reminiscent of scientific models, appearing like remnants or found artifacts from a world in transition.

“A central idea of the work is the question of how our understanding of what it means to be human is changing. New technologies — particularly artificial intelligence — are increasingly intervening in spaces of thought and experience. Talbot describes this as a form of ‘soul scraping,’ a process in which human interiority is transferred into digital systems,” explains curator Dr. Magdalena Holzhey.

At the same time, the work offers a broader perspective. By referencing the asteroid Psyche — currently the subject of a NASA research mission and named after the human soul — the installation evokes a future in which new resources and possibilities emerge, while also raising fundamental ethical questions. Despite addressing uncertainty and crisis, Psyche is guided by a clear stance: within chaos lies potential. The work invites viewers to rethink interconnectedness — between humans, other life forms, and technologies — and to recognize in this the potential for care, resilience, and a shared future.

A publication accompanying the exhibition will be released by grass publishers, Cologne.

Since 2018, the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, under the artistic direction of Katia Baudin, have invited artists from diverse disciplines to engage with the collection, the museum’s history, and the architecture of its three venues — Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Haus Lange, and Haus Esters — through the Collection Satellites series, creating new ways of experiencing them.