Claire Barclay
26 May 2010 - 02 May 2011
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.
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.