Artist Residency - Claire Morgan at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
Down Time, 2010 by Claire Morgan
Taxidermy jackdaw, strawberries, bluebottles, fruit flies, lead, nylon, acrylic
Dimensions variable. The layer of strawberries grew from 2.5 x 2.5 m to around 2.5 x 5 m over the course of the 2-month exhibition at La Casa Encendida.
Taxidermy jackdaw, strawberries, bluebottles, fruit flies, lead, nylon, acrylic
Dimensions variable. The layer of strawberries grew from 2.5 x 2.5 m to around 2.5 x 5 m over the course of the 2-month exhibition at La Casa Encendida.
Photo CISZAK DALMAS TAMANGO
The inspiration for the fourth Contemporary Heritage project is Helmshore Mills Textile Museum in the stunning Rossendale Valley. Helmshore Mills is made up of two Lancashire textile mills, Higher Mill and Whitaker’s Mill.
Contemporary Heritage: A new way of seeing is an ambitious contemporary art programme created by Mid Pennine Arts (MPA) in partnership with historic venues across Lancashire. The artist residencies are commissioned by MPA in collaboration with Helmshore Mills Textile Museum and Turton Tower. Claire's residency in October 2011 inspired her ideas for the No Match installation at Helmshore Mills, open from 13 February to 31 October 2012.
Claire Morgan is a London based sculptor who makes suspended sculptures from thousands of individual elements. She creates works which hover between movement and stillness, fragility and solidity. Claire sees similarities in the intensive processes involved in making her work and the techniques employed by mill workers. Claire spent her residency learning some of these skills, meeting people who once worked in Lancashire mills and creating drawings to reflect her experiences and research.
Mid Pennine Arts and Helmshore Mills Textile Museum would like to thank Arts Council England and Perspectives of Pennine Lancashire for their financial support.
"Exhilarating and fascinating to see" (In response to seeing images of Claire's work in her Artist Talk)
"Element of seduction to your work"
"Almost theatrical"