Claire Barclay
26 May 2010 - 02 May 2011
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| | Claire Barclay / Whitechapel 2010 |
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The Bloomberg Commission:
CLAIRE BARCLAY
Shadow Spans
26 May 2010 - 2 May 2011
Glasgow-based artist Claire Barclay is a leading figure in a generation
of young sculptors that have defined a re-engagement with materials and
making. Barclay has an internationally recognised track record of
creating large-scale sculptural installations that combine highly
formalised elements with a scatter aesthetic, using platforms, screens
and other structures around which crafted objects lie in carefully
gathered constellations. She draws from both craft and industrial
processes, often combining metal forms with intricately woven corn
dollies or delicately printed fabric. This bringing together of
different resources triggers strong emotional responses in the viewer as
well as communicating her material sensibility.
The artist also refers to the legacy of surrealism: in her combination
of forms and materials, and through the use of language in the titling.
These suggest a series of dualities at the heart of her work including
function and dysfunction, sense and nonsense, attraction and repulsion.
With its bare brick walls and concrete floor, Barclay has imagined the
former Reading Room of the Whitechapel Library as a space turned outside
in. This proximity to exterior spaces and the street is explored
formally through Shadow Spans in the use of door and window like forms
and a graphic interpretation of the brickwork that is repeated on
fabric. The ideas of looking, watching and observing as a shared
experience of the street are also subtly explored in the work. Shadow
Spans will be animated throughout the year by a series of dance
performances devised by leading choreographers in response to her work,
beginning in July.
Admission free
Supported by: BLOOMBERG
The Bloomberg Commission invites an international artist to create an
annual site-specific artwork inspired by the rich history of the former
library. Bloomberg’s support reflects its commitment to innovation, and
its ongoing efforts to expand access to art, science and the humanities.
Additional support provided by the Wingate Scholarships. Claire Barclay
is the Wingate Artist-in-Residence at the Whitechapel Gallery.
www.whitechapel.org |
