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Claire Morgan
A Part at the Seam
2009
Taxidermy Jackdaw, thistle seeds, torn black polythene, lead, nylon, acrylic
93 x 93 x 300 cm
Private Collection
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 laire Morgan’s sculptural installations appear to oscillate in frozen temporal fields, symbolic of a preternatural hunger and nature’s eternal fight. An interest in the suspension of time and belief is similar in vein to the work of Cornelia Parker and, perhaps in a more lateral sense, Maurizio Cattelan. Unlike the more specifically referential work of Parker or the zany and burlesque humour of a Cattelan, Morgan’s work is imbued with a sense of profound wonder at the natural world around us and tinged with an edge of impending doom. A meticulous attention to detail combined with a painstaking, some may say laborious, methodology found Morgan working alongside the artists Hemali Bhuta and Sissi Farassat in a recent group show at the Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich entitled Tracing Reality.
Morgan was born in 1980 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 2000 she gained a distinction in the Art and Design Foundation course from the University of Ulster. From there, she moved to the north of England and completed her BA in Fine Art Sculpture at the University of Northumbria, achieving a first class honours degree. Citing nature and minimalism, in that order, as her two main influences there is a formalist and mathematical structure to the work which subtly contradicts an aspect of chaos and confusion. This intense interest in nature, its fragility and the fleeting character of existence, predicated a use of ephemeral materials such as fruit and decomposing animal carcasses in Morgan’s earlier works. Through these investigations, Morgan became interested in capturing natural moments of transience in a more permanent way. More recent works include animals which have undergone a process of taxidermy, executed by the artist herself, as well as the inclusion of artificial elements such as torn plastic and other forms of human detritus.
Claire Morgan has received international acclaim and exhibited her work in solo and group shows as well as undertaking many public and private commissions. Solo shows have included Emotional Response Lagan Lookout, Belfast, 2004; Crowdpleaser Persistence Works, Yorkshire ArtSpace Society, Sheffield, 2006 and most recently Life. Blood. Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, 2010. In 2004 Morgan received the annual bursary award from the Royal British Society of Sculptors and consequently the Roy Noakes Award, also selected by the Royal British Society. In 2006 she won the Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, first prize of 10,000 Euro for Red or Dead in Milan, Italy and was also one of the selected artists for the 2007 Jerwood Drawing Prize, held in London. Claire Morgan lives and works in London, England.
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Claire Morgan
Tracing Time
2007
Dandelion seeds, nylon threads, a taxidermied wren, dead leaves, lead
30 x 60 x 400 cm
Private collection
Photo © Claire Morgan |
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Claire Morgan: I was born in Belfast in 1980 and when I was eighteen I moved to the North-East of England to study.
Art Interview: What was it like growing up in Belfast?
Claire Morgan: It wasn't as dramatic as one might imagine. Obviously there were troubles there, but when you're a kid you don't actually realise that there's anything strange about that environment. Afterwards you get out and think, God, actually you're not supposed to worry about where you live and whether that area is Catholic or Protestant. Still, it wasn't really a bad place to grow up, and it's not like that any more.
Art Interview: What do your parents do for a living?
Claire Morgan: My father is a maths teacher and my mother was a nurse until she died in 1992. They didn't do anything related to art, although I consider my work to be quite mathematical; maybe that comes from my dad.
Art Interview: What did your parents think about your decision to go into the art field?
Claire Morgan: I knew that I wanted to be an artist from a very early age, maybe 7 years old, so it wasn't really a surprise. My dad has always been very supportive. Sometimes he even helps me at the studio if time is running short on a project.
Art Interview: Why did you decide to attend the University of Northumbria?
Claire Morgan: My choice to attend that particular university wasn't based on any sound academic reasoning. My past boyfriend and I chose a place where we both thought we'd be accepted. It was important for us to find a place that was cheap to live. I don't think I could have survived in London at that time and I certainly couldn't have survived there after I had graduated. I would have had to find a real job.
Art Interview: Were you working while you were attending the university?
Claire Morgan: I was doing craft workshops and spray-painting workshops for kids at community arts centres, which was art related but not related to my own practice. I thought it was better than working in a bar, like many of my friends were doing.
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Claire Morgan
Untitled
2002
120 x 120 cm, height variable
Approx 2000 strawberries, nylon thread
Exhibited at The Graveyard,
University of Northumbria |
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Art Interview: Did you find professors at the University of Northumbria who were supportive of your work?
Claire Morgan: Oh, that's a tricky question. The focus of the school was so conceptual that everyone there was too scared to actually make anything. Some of the students who did make objects had their works torn to shreds by the tutors during the group critique! It was very difficult to make anything there.
During my studies I participated in a three-month exchange program with an art school in Holland. What I found there was the complete opposite of the University of Northumbria, to the extent that it was too free and you were congratulated for everything that you did. What I learnt the most from the combination of these two different environments was that in art school you're just getting somebody's opinion and if you feel differently then you have to sometimes take risks through trusting what you're doing.
Art Interview: What was your opinion of conceptual art at that time?
Claire Morgan: I find some conceptual art really interesting but the things that interest me the most are material and process based. I like Arte Povera and I'm also interested in Minimalism.
Art Interview: Did you find it difficult attending a school that was conceptually based?
Claire Morgan: Yes, it was terrible. If I'd made my current work back in college I am sure they would have torn it to shreds.
Art Interview: In retrospect what is your opinion of what they were teaching you?
Claire Morgan: What they taught us definitely didn't have anything to do with living as an artist, especially in Newcastle upon Tyne. They were asking us to make all this conceptual work but you could never survive up there with that type of work. So, from a practical point of view it wasn't useful. But I do think that I benefited from having to deal with their criticism. Whenever I made anything it wasn't long before I'd know everything that anybody could possibly say against it. The process of making work is very instinctive for me but I was able to subconsciously take all of those considerations into account. Ultimately, I learned a lot in one-way or another.
Art Interview: How did you manage to steel yourself against such major critiques?
Claire Morgan: I managed by being very determined. I knew what I wanted to do. I was not going to stop doing it just because someone was criticising it. I'm a very self-driven, and determined person in general, so I don’t feel obliged to listen to what people say. It drives me mad when people are not capable of thinking for themselves.
Art Interview: Which contemporary artists do you find most interesting?
Claire Morgan: I really enjoy the works of Maurizio Cattelan, and also people like Olafur Eliasson, and Roger Hiorns. I don’t spend much time looking at the art of other artists though.
Art Interview: How did you begin forging a professional career?
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Claire Morgan
Water on the Brain
2006
5,300 origami paper boats, yacht varnish, fishing line, steel supporting structure
900 x 300 x 160 cm
Photo © Claire Morgan |
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Claire Morgan: I didn't really know what being a professional artist entailed until I started doing it and I'm still learning. Obviously getting recognition is important and how you do that changes all the time.
I started out doing community-based art projects to fund my exhibition pieces. I couldn't sell anything back then because I wasn't recognised and the commissions were few and far between. It was quite difficult to convince people that my work should be commissioned for their public art spaces when it was made from rotting fruit. But eventually I began to get a few commissions and eventually I kind of “got in” with the public art commissions.
The temporary public art commissions enable me to create big, dramatic works that don’t have the constraints of a permanent public art piece; which require durable materials and a certain sense of ‘safety’ and positivity in terms of the concept. I did some pieces in Newcastle, one of which was called Water on the Brain. That piece was commissioned for the National Trust and it was made out of 5,300 little paper boats, suspended within the spillway of a reservoir. People seemed to latch on to that image and it brought me a lot of attention.
My career has grown organically. People gradually started to approach me rather than me chasing after them. My drawings began to sell and that enabled me to make fewer public art projects, which I found to be very stressful. I'm actually working on a public art project at the moment but it may be one of the last ones that I do, as there are not many such opportunities that don’t involve making large compromises in the areas of materials used and working process.
Art Interview: In 2006 you were awarded first prize for artists under the age of 40 from the Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Claire Morgan: Yes, that was an open submission exhibition that I was selected for. There was no funding available to install the work so I had to apply for funding from the Arts Council England. They made it possible for me go to the exhibition and set up my work. At that time I was making pieces that took at least a week to set up. I was making a living from my work by then but I couldn’t have afforded to stay in Milan for ten days.
Winning the award was amazing and it was really valuable for me. Up to that point, I hadn't had an international exhibition. They also granted a lot more money than the Royal British Society of Sculptors Annual Bursary Award or Roy Noakes Award, both of which I had previously won. It enabled me to spend more time concentrating on my work rather than having to accept every public art commission that I could get.
Art Interview: How did you begin exhibiting in commercial galleries outside of the UK?
This oral history transcript is the result of a digitally recorded interview with Claire Morgan on March 26, 2010. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany and London, UK. Brendan Davis conducted this interview for Art Interview Online Magazine. Peter Reiling wrote the introductory text at the beginning of this interview. |
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