Chances are you’ve already seen Claire Morgan’s incredibly detailed suspended sculptures somewhere around the web. If they didn’t stop you in your tracks, then we invite you take a good, long look at them again. Though she uses common materials like lead, nylon, acrylic, she also spends countless hours arranging thousands of pieces of everything from fruits and leaves to dandelion seeds and fruit flies. Did we mention she also incorporates dead animals?
Morgan’s big break came in 2006 when she was commissioned by National Trust in Newcastle, UK to create Water on the Basin, a sculpture made of 5,300 origami paper boats carefully assembled together with yacht varnish, fishing line, and a steel structure. (See first picture, above.) Beautifully suspended within the spillway of a reservoir, it was nothing short of magical. “People seemed to latch on to that image and it brought me a lot of attention,” she says.
So, why does she do it? What do her sculptures mean to her and what does she hope others take away from them?
“My work is about change and the passing of time, and the transience of everything around us,” she says. “For me, creating seemingly solid structures or forms from thousands of individually suspended elements has a direct relation with my experience of these forces. There is a sense of fragility and a lack of solidity that carries through all the sculptures. I feel as if they are somewhere between movement and stillness, and thus in possession of a certain energy.
“Animals, birds and insects have been present in my recent sculptures, and I use suspense to create something akin to freeze frames. In some works, animals might appear to fly or fall through other seemingly solid suspended forms, or even perch or sit on them. In other works, insects appear to fly in static formations. The evidence of gravity – or lack of it – inherent in these scenarios is what brings them to life, or death.”
Fluid (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Kris Heath
Courtesy the artist
Silver Lining (detail) (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Claire Morgan
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
Silver Lining (detail) (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Claire Morgan
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
To Woo You (detail) (2010) Claire Morgan
Photo: Angus Mill
Courtesy the artist
To Woo You (2010) Claire Morgan
Photo: Angus Mill
Courtesy the artist
A Part at the Seam (detail) (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Claire Morgan
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
A Part at the Seam (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Claire Morgan
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
Fall Out (detail) (2010) Claire Morgan
Photo: Pascal Tarris
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
CM 2010 Fall Out, view #01 (1).jpg
Fall Out (detail) (2010) Claire Morgan
Photo: Pascal Tarris
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
Foreign Body (detail) (2010) Claire Morgan
Photo: Pascal Tarris
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
Foreign Body (2010) Claire Morgan
Photo: Pascal Tarris
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
Pedestal (detail) (2011) Claire Morgan
Photo: Pascal Tarris
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
Pedestal (2011) Claire Morgan
Photo: Pascal Tarris
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
While You Were Sleeping (detail) (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Claire Morgan
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
While You Were Sleeping (2009) Claire Morgan
Photo: Claire Morgan
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
If you’d like to see Morgan’s new and existing sculptures in person, she’ll be showing next at Hub National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford (a town within the district of Lincolnshire, England) from May 21, 2011 to September 4, 2011.
In the meantime, visit Claire Morgan’s website and Facebook page.