YOU WILL NOT STOP HERE – Claire Morgan

Morgan raises fundamental questions about the role of humans and their relationship to nature. Complex three-dimensional forms made from artificial and natural materials are a frequently recurring motif in her work.

Morgan aims to immerse audiences into her work, creating an experiential exchange. The creation of the pieces is intricate, time consuming and extremely skilled. Her detailed installations deepen the viewing experience through the quality and intricacy of the work. By using taxidermy, waste materials, dead animals, sculptural wax figures and human hair, the audience will see something totally unique, something haunting and inspire new understanding to the possibilities of the art form.

“The work explores real and imagined relationships between individuals and between species, at a time when devastating environmental and humanitarian emergencies are manipulated for political goals. It comes from the need to foster kinship, but this can be no fairy tale. Whether we think about grief, loss, personal or collective trauma, or the climate catastrophe, we can never just start from scratch. Glossing over problems doesn’t work, because the truth always bubbles to the surface. We must find ways to exist and find beauty despite our circumstances, not by denying their existence.” C Morgan

Golden Thread Gallery is a contemporary visual art gallery on Queen Street in Belfast City Centre. We work to broaden access to and improve public experience of visual art in Northern Ireland, with high quality programmes that embrace the breadth and variety of contemporary arts practice, and develop, support and promote the work of Northern Irish artists. Our mission statement is “Creating a context, challenging perceptions, promoting creativity, delivering contemporary visual art for all”.

ABOUT CLAIRE MORGAN:

Claire Morgan is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sculpture, drawing, writing, printmaking and installation. She explores the complex, often dysfunctional relationships between humans and other species, addressing trauma, grief, memory, and the powerful transformative potential that exists in vulnerability. Solo shows include I only dared to touch you once I knew that you were dead, Galerie Karsten Greve, (Cologne and Paris, 2023), Joy in the Pain, Saarlandmuseum Moderne Galerie (Saarbrücken, 2021), As I Live and Breathe, The Horniman Museum (London, 2019), Stop Me Feeling, Frist Art Museum (Nashville, 2017). Morgan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2024. She was awarded a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant in 2022, and the 12th Fondation Guerlain Drawing Prize in 2019. Works are in collections worldwide including Centre Georges Pompidou, Fondation Guerlain, and MONA.