Claire Barclay: Thrum

In this exhibition Barclay includes a series of tactile sculptural environments, where large-scale forms, made predominantly from fabrics and metals, “suggest textile narratives and explore our complex relationships with cloth.”

Historical connections between the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland have become a focus while evolving the artworks. More specifically, interactions and migrations of people due to work, trade, religion and colonisation, and how these relationships relate to textile production. In particular, Ayrshire ‘whitework’ embroidery, linen cloth production, and indigenous dress have informed some of the formal and material choices within the sculptures.

Domestic, industrial and agricultural references are interwoven into ambiguous sculptural forms that explore the nature of human engagement in ‘making’ practices and our cultural and symbolic relationships with materials.

Taking inspiration from a range of reference points, including historical artefacts, museum collections, craft practices, methods and places of production, and anthropological perspectives, the work plays with upsetting conventional hierarchies and assumptions in relation to value and meaning of materials and forms. Often the works indirectly question present day romanticisation and commodification of craft and heritage and provoke us to question our own relationship to these.

Within the exhibition combs, bowls and mirrors are a recurring motif. Persistent and recognisable forms through centuries and cultures, they provide a degree of universality that can be manipulated. Here they appear as large rusty steel forms and as small sharp edged brass objects, ambiguously suggestive of functions of the factory, workshop or institution.

Find out more>>>

Please note 

Walk-ins welcome. You are encouraged to book so that numbers can be tracked. Free event.