Clare Twomey (born 1968 in Ipswich) is a London-based visual artist and researcher, working in performance, serial production, and site-specific installation.
Education and academic career
Twomey attended the Edinburgh College of Art from 1991 to 1994 and received an MA in Ceramics and Glass from the Royal College of Art in London in 1996. In 2011 she became a Research Fellow in the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster, where she is affiliated with the Ceramics Research Centre.
Work
Twomey's work typically involves intense research, collaboration in fabrication, and interactive presentations. A recurring theme in her work is the relationship that binds people to things. Her use of the medium of clay involves various forms of the material, including raw clay and powder, and techniques and processes including slip cast and factory production. Twomey sees her practice as research: she has explained that she is "engaged in a process of inquiry, an exploration of ideas, predicated on exploring characteristics of clay."
Twomey was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to art.
Selected works
Consciousness/conscience
Between 2001 and 2004 Consciousness/conscience was exhibited in a variety of places including the Tate, Liverpool; Crafts Council, London; and Icheon, Korea. At each of the sites of installation, between 3000 and 8000 hollow bone china tiles were created to be displayed on the floor. As the viewer walked through the installation, the tiles were crushed underfoot, causing the viewer to be an active participant in shaping the work and challenging the viewer's perception of both the gallery space and the permanence of the work. The artwork was thus completed through the destruction of the tiles. Consciousness/Conscience has been interpreted as showing how the artist's work is "influenced by observations of human interaction and political behavior and peruses her interest in space, architecture, intervention and the gallery as destination."
Trophy
In 2006 Trophy was exhibited at the Victorian and Albert Museum. This one-day exhibition displayed 4000 sculptures of cast bluebirds that were created at the Wedgwood Factory. Each bluebird was stamped with a W for where it was made, V&A for where it would be exhibited, and CT for the artist's initials. Viewers became collaborative performers when they were asked to take one of the birds home as a 'Trophy.' These active participants who took these trophies were asked to send a photograph back to Twomey of the birds in their new home. "Trophy continues to develop as is spreads out across hundreds of private locations"
Monument
In 2009, Clare Twomey created the work Monument for the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art as part of the exhibition Possibilities and Losses: Transitions in Clay, which she helped to curate. This exhibition included Keith Harrison, Linda Sormin and Neil Brownsword. For Monument, 30 cubic meters of ceramic waste were piled up 8 meters high. Inspired by looking at a pile of broken china from the Johnson Porcelain Tile Factory in Stoke-on-Trent, this piece was made up of discarded seconds and manufacturing mistakes. The scale of the pile created tension in the work because the pile seemed as though it could crumble at any moment.
Forever
In Twomey's first solo American show (2011), Twomey observed the Frank and Harriet Burnlaps collection of 1,345 pieces of ceramics at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. In this exhibition she explored permanence, responsibility, memory, desirability, the value and process of making through looking at one specific item from the collection, a sandbach cup. Twomey worked with the ceramic company, Hartley Greens and Co. Leeds Pottery to cast 1,345 cups. Working from a similar conceptual framework as Trophy, Twomey created a system where viewers could apply to own a cup if they signed a contract promising to take care of the cup forever.