Materials' associations and characteristics often comprise the starting
point for Claire Barclay's work. Many of the materials used in this Scottish
artist's work are organic and refer to nature, and would be called
fetishistic by Sigmund Freud. Both her selection and combinations are
refined and ingenious: hard materials like glass and metal are contrasted
with the softness of cotton yarn and feathers; the hand-crafted are
contrasted with the industrial. Along with making things herself, she also
uses ready-mades.
Physical intimacy is palpable in Claire Barclay's art as is ambiguity; her
objects contain elements of cleaning utensils and sports articles as well as
instruments of torture and sexual toys. The feeling of recognition becomes
rapidly mixed with uncertainty when the observer's fantasies play the
leading role. The function one thinks one recognises is often proved to be a
disturbing - if often comic - dysfunction. In this way Barclay thematises
the relationship between nature and culture, between the human body and its
surroundings - a relationship pertinent not least to sexuality. Her
post-minimalist sensibility shares several points with Eva Hesse's, for
example.
Claire Barclay's objects seldom appear alone; things are placed in relation
to each other in installations that must be navigated, in a structure that
is more reminiscent of poetry than of traditional sculpture. Sometimes her
installations resemble landscapes. One of her latest projects is a public
commission in a residential area in one of Glasgow's southern suburbs.
Together with an architect and the residents in the area, she has designed a
remarkable but also functional, three-storey garden shed. The residents who
want to cultivate small plots use the shed, and it contains several
surprises.
Claire Barclay's Moderna Museet Projekt in Prästgården (the Old Vicarage)
consists of a totally new installation. In addition to using the former
assembly room for her objects, she will be extending her exhibition to
encompass the trees and landscape around the Vicarage.
Claire Barclay was born in Paisley, Scotland and lives in Glasgow. In March
2000 there will be a one-woman show of her work at The Showroom in London.
In Sweden she has previously participated in the group show, Clean & Sane,
at Edsvik Art and Culture in Sollentuna in the summer of 1997.
Curator: Maria Lind
IMAGE:
Claire Barclay
Homemaking
Detail from installation (2000)
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