Running on Sunlight
A Tangled Thicket – Claire Moore
Artist Statement
I use plant material and glimpses of plastic waste to create forms that speculate hybrid futures.
I am interested in resilience and survival – How life forms that have endured and thrived for millions of years drive adaptation and forge relationships; how complex systems and patterns arise out of simple interactions – and how looking at biomimetic responses to challenges can inform human inhabited systems.
This is information to embed. There are ecosystems everywhere whose component parts are acutely/keenly informed by function and purpose.
In Janine Beynhuys’ words:
Nature
Runs on Sunlight
Fits form to function
Recycles everything
Relentlessly creates the conditions conducive to life.
This – a canon to learn from.
The material I use is offered up by my garden, by friends and neighbourhood side
The purity of this plant purpose is at odds with the artist’s hand that manipulates, embellishes and re arranges. What I have learnt from working with natural materials is that there is a reciprocity of will and way that determines the outcome. It is like getting to know a friend.
This is my sustenance – a practice to thrive on.
Running on Sunlight
Natural and fabricated found materials, wire
In Collateral Damage, and the nearby hanging installation Running on Sunlight, Clare Moore uses found, organic materials to conjure up a world of fantastic, hybrid creatures. Moore’s miniature beings are species on the move – responding to the threats of climate change, and ecological collapse, they migrate and adapt across biomes, ecosystems, and planes of existence. Gentle, light, defying categorization, Moore’s creatures evoke a symbiotic way of life in a more-than-human world.
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“I’m interested in broadening my understanding of ecosystems,” Moore says. “Years ago, my knowledge was pretty small, and often focused on ecological niches, but I’m beginning to think of ecosystems as much broader structures, like social networks, and how relationships work across so many species and are dependent on each other.
“I’m interested in how those relationships evolve, and how it is evolving to accommodate things like plastic,” she continues. “There are organisms that are evolving to metabolize plastic and I’m curious to observe what that means for the ecosystem. I’m interested in the hybridity and evolution of things, and speculating as to what things could look like over time with interference and connection.”
– excerpt from an interview with Emma Jeffrey in STIR
Collateral Damage from the Grooves of Change series
Installation with natural and fabricated found materials, Charcoal drawing
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Illuminated Pods
Paper, natural and plastic materials, motion sensor, filament lights
I wish to thank Liam O Brien for devising the circuitry for the Illuminated Pods and his willingness to “dive into” a demanding set of requests.
With the Illuminated Pods Claire Moore invites us to both witness and participate in a microcosmic world of organic life. Each ‘pod’ is reminiscent of a microbiome: a miniature sphere of organic activity, filled with its own imaginative lifeforms. Moore points to the hidden relationships that conjoin all lifeforms – including the ones we cannot see.
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- Illuminated Pod #1
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- Illuminated Pod #2
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- Illuminated pod #3
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- Illuminated pod #4
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- Illuminated pod #5
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- Illuminated pod #6
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- Illuminated pod #7
Campbell Valley – Land Series
In many of Claire Moore’s works, the artist refers to sensations of migration and movement. In the Land series of paintings, the artist expresses her recollection of walking in specific locales, through vibrant colour and organic patterning. Rather than try to represent her observations of these places from a distance, as in the manner of traditional landscape painting, Moore instead captures something of her embodiment in the terrain itself—striving to replicate the experience of being on the Earth, and a part of it.
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- Campbell Valley - Land Series
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- De Beck's Hill - Land Series
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- Petri Scrolls
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Reclaimant
Wisteria and grape vine. Site specific sculpture.
The title reflects some of the themes that run through A Tangled Thicket – particularly the resilience of plants – their ability to reclaim damaged soil and spaces; assignation of personhood to allow forests and threatened sites to become claimants in legal spheres and have their rights protected; plants as recyclers and reclaimers – fixing nitrogen in the soil enabling our absorption of a critical element. We are truly entangled with this and other plants.