Drifting back and forth between nomadic wandering and ground control.
Snipping ideas from here and there, artist Clare Burnett sees herself as a magpie, collecting items and bringing them back to her studio, which instead of a nest, resembles more of a ground control room: a station where multiple influences arrive and are rearranged to take off in the form of abstract sculptural objects. Either returning from stimulating worldwide residencies, or wandering streets and cafes from where she gathers inspiration, spending time in her studio is a course of action for the artist to touch base and get working, to lock down and then open up to feedback, leave behind contemplation and focus on assemblage. Described by Clare herself as a concrete box full of too much stuff, with just the right amount of space for one project to be developed, the mood is cosy and mechanical. Through the agencies of 3D printers, saws, and hammers, a shiny silver color palette stands out in the space contrasting with the pastel tones of the artist’s models. Her work can be found hanging on white walls, on top of desks and shelves or installed throughout the garden, altogether mirroring Clare’s study of shape and color. Not only attracted to physical forms, her practice focuses on spatial relationships which has led her to wrap her studio with plastic in past occasions, under-covering emotional connections to the space and covering its embedded connotations to the dual elements of permanence and ephemerality. Numerous nomadic experiences combined with the recent global pandemic, the time has come to reduce hectic traveling and Clare has transformed a garden shed into a home residency where containers have become means of exploring cavities and items in the house allow an exercise on reevaluating objects and spaces.