SHEEP ON THE ROCKS.....and they BECAME SWANS.....

 Quickly my sheep got tired of pasturing and so we went down to the sea to feed on some algae. The tide was low and by sunset the sheep turned into swans, or better poodles, more likely, even if they still felt like sheep deep down!

PASTURE

 So by 8000 bags and still going, I decided to have a little break in between. Inspired by the Welsh landscape and playing with biblical references I set off with my little herd of plastic sheep to Clarech. During my explorations I thought I had found the perfect spot to set them in, so that I could blend them into the summer grazing together with all the local sheep. I have kept an eye on that spot for a while now but when got there yesterday, of course there were no bloody sheep anymore! All gone! Not one even one sheep left for the sake of art! No sheep around that I could see. I was really bummed. I lost my mojo and considered leaving and go to the pub instead, but it had been such an effort to just get there and carry the plastic beasts over the hills that I had to stick around for a bit longer and try to make something out of it even without any imspiration.....here are some pics

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: PLASTIC BAGS ON STAGE!

 8000 plastic bags performing on the theatre stage of Aberystwyth arts Centre!

The bags are performing only for me!

In a work called: 'HANGING LANDSCAPE'

But I thought  I share some visuals anyhow!

 On that day I have taken almost 500 photos and many hours of film. Editing has been a nightmare, like usual I could not make my mind up so the selection I have finally come up with is quite a large one!

ON STAGE at Aberystwyth Theatre

ONE DAY AT THE THEATRE

 Working away I have now taped together 8000 plastic bags. My studio is stuffed with them and there are more to come!

Yesterday we had the privilege, me and all of my bags to go for a day to the Aberystwyth Theatre.

Wow, did they love the stage! so huge and magical, really special. I tested them all out, but it was a mad race against time, from 8am till 10pm, setting them up, photographing them and filming just to actually see what I have done until now!

Here are few pics of how I have install them. There are videos coming hopefully soon featuring the performance that I have filmed to go with the work.

Open Studio

 Tests in preparation for my first Museum Solo Show at the Museum of Los Gatos, California.

Images from Clare Thornton's 'Material Matters' project at the Arts Centre between 28th May 2011 - 9th June 2011

FROM CLARE THORNTON - JUNE 2011

Hello, My name’s Clare Thornton & I’m the recipient of the Laura Ashley Foundation Residency Award.I’ve been in residence here since the beginning of May 2011 and will be so for another 4 weeks.


The studio's here are great spaces to work in and I've been jamming with some incredible people in the past weeks.By way of introduction I’d describe my practice as interdisciplinary and collaborative and I work across performance, visual art and craft to create performance events, print/book works and mixed media installations.

A key part of the Laura Ashley Foundation’s support for my residency here at Aberystwyth Arts Centre was to encourage local engagement with my practice. With the aim of creating the right conditions for that engagement I developed Materials Matters - a social, participatory installation in the gallery space which I hosted from 28th May-9th June with collaborative support from Aberystwyth based artist Ali Matthews, who is a Ph.D. student at the University and researching participatory performance and relational practices.

In the lead up to this event I established a small network of community contacts guided by the Arts Centre team and the call went out through its diverse networks for local residents to bring me an object to the gallery space that might tell me something about them or their local area...

So Material Matters was an invitation to join in.
A way of opening up of a creative research process.
A process that involved a good deal of chat (dialogue plays a key role in my work), as in fact does Collecting/examining objects and the memories we tenderly fold into them.

Material Matters was curious about people's interaction with each other, their physical and emotional relationship with objects and with place or context/situation.

The proposition was to create a 3D landscape of Aberystwyth, an emotional, biographical landscape if you like, shaped through the objects shared with me by local residents.

It was a kind of mapping process. A shifting, sculptural installation transformed daily by the participants active contribution and transactions with the artists and the objects displayed.

This activity works alongside my interests in revealing the processes of production and inviting people into discussions around contemporary art production.




So now that installation has been de-installed and the objects returned to their owners, its time to move out of the gallery and back into the studio. I'm using this part of my residency as reflection time and using the studio space to begin to consider how I might transform the materials I have gathered through this social, public research process.

I would like to work with these encounters: with people, objects, gesture, conversation and explore how I might transform these 'fragile materials' into performance movements (to camera), sculptural forms & works on paper.




I'm excited to use the studio space here to work more physically and try out some movement ideas. I'm really pleased to have met Louise Ritchie, a Ph.D. student here, as I like to engage with her research around the 'In All Languages' movement vocabulary. And look at how I may introduce that into my studio practice.

I’ll let you know how I get on...