Claire Morgan is a multidisciplinary artist that uses the gifts of nature to inspire her works on paper, sculptures, and installations. She uses organic materials, including dead animals, that she learned to sculpt with taxidermy techniques and the waste and impact humans have on their surroundings. Morgan considers her work more intuitive than intellectual and finds it necessary to handle natural things to understand the material and what properties they possess. Her artistic projects begin with sketches and words in a sketchbook, then move into scale drawings on graph paper, showing the myriads of layers necessary to achieve her goals.

As she says, “For me, both in this work and in life, there is a jarring between disruptive, unstoppable cycles of life and death, that ultimately govern us, and the superficial, seductive, safe, and easily consumable things: colours, materials, objects that we choose to use to entertain and distract ourselves.”

Morgan’s works on paper begin with the taxidermy process, as in The Air That We Breathe. She records measurements and uses their bodies as mark making tools. As she says, “The drawing process enables me to explore the physicality and morality of the animal in a spontaneous and intuitive way.”

Morgan shows us nature in the process. Most are visions of nature frozen as they are on the threshold between transformation and death. Gone With the Wind is an example of the transformative, as Brink is the frozen time look at disaster, and Within You Without You opens us to the promise of spring and new beginnings. Her work captivates us as she makes us rethink our relationship with nature, and thus with ourselves. Her awareness continues to be drawn to waste which includes single-use plastic. As she describes it, “For me this material is like a contemporary artefact that embodies our lazy, indulgent, throwaway culture, and it provides a very clear and literal example of the impact we have on our surroundings. But I am not making work about rubbish. More than this, it embodies the social and psychological toll this culture can take on us, as individuals and as animals.”

By recognizing rhythms and cycles on this earth, we realize our own and conclude that we are one unit. Even though her material is ordinary, it transfigures into carefully considered compositions in Morgan’s hands. This structure–this containment-allows us to experience her complete vision. As Morgan said at her Horniman Museum and Gardens installation, “My works reference contemporary interactions between humans and animals/ the natural world. I hope that placing these works with the context of an historic natural setting will encourage people to trace the (not necessarily positive) development of these relationships over time and encourage discussion as to what choices we ought to be making for the future”.

Morgan is represented by Galerie Karsten Greve. More or her work can be seen at her website.

.

PLEASE SEE PORTFOLIO BELOW