Artist Statement

My practice centres on the construction of a hybrid world rooted in drawing, digital environments and ancestral imagination. Growing up bi-racial in contemporary South Africa, I was frequently confronted with the question, “What are you?” Occupying this space of “neither here nor there” has fundamentally shaped my approach to making. My work has become a means of imagining worlds in which queer, female bodies can exist fully, and where my English and isiXhosa lineages are able to coexist.

Ancestral imagination, for me, involves working from lived experience informed by my family and those who came before me, while using technology as a conduit to reimagine what it means to belong. Within these hybrid worlds, I begin to question dominant narratives and construct speculative spaces where erased or marginalised lineages can be re-envisioned.

Biography

Emily Phila Allingham is a South African artist and 3D designer based in Cape Town. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Stellenbosch University and a Higher Certificate in Game Design and Interactive Media Development from the Academy of Digital Arts. Her practice spans drawing, sculpture, installation and game environments, with a focus on hybrid world-building, ancestry and speculative technologies. Emily currently works as a 3D designer in the mascots and animatronics industry and is part of a game production incubator developing an isiXhosa-inspired game. Her work explores the intersections of identity, technology and belonging through both digital and fabricated forms.