“crawlspace”
by em inserra
in the crawlspace
the drywall is soft
and the pipes hum like respite
go willingly
curl your fingers and call it mercy
feed yourself sleep
so that hunger feels like safety
every winter has an ear
and down there it dreams in bone meal
growing fur in places you’ve shaved smooth
a wet shift, soft cracking
turning over as if finding its original shape
pause, not death
you can lock the hatch and pretend the knocking is old plumbing
or wind
anything but you
“self-portrait”
by em inserra
artist statement
hello, i’m em inserra (she/any). i am a minneapolis-based multidisciplinary artist and writer whose work explores the subconscious through memory, dreams, instinct, and the body. i work mostly in ink on paper. my drawings and poems circle around what it means to be conscious, to live inside a body that feels both mine and not mine. i am interested in the strange instinct of being alive, the surrealism of dreams, and the way feeling and thought blur until they become the same thing.
i often think of the body as both familiar and uncanny. biology, instinct, and the sacred strangeness of embodiment guide the way my figures distort, fragment, and reform. I am drawn to themes of transformation, otherness, queer interiority, and the fluid border between the real and the unreal.
i also experiment with film, sound, image, light, and other materials. you can find me on instagram: @placidpeanut