Claire Baily
Sitting somewhere between sculpture and painting Claire's recent work uses ideas of mark marking, mapping and process to explore the history of communication & the history of place. Engaging in a sculptural practice that is often made up of carefully crafted components she embraces both historical and technological making processes to produce objects that show a clear interest in time, form, material and method.
Using purposefully abstract language Claire often use a certain set of materials and visual motifs in a singular piece of work; acting as a coded framework or index in which to operate. Alluding simultaneously to the familiar and the unidentifiable from the world around us you are likely to find imagery from a metalworking manual, material dug from a land of Pictish history & forms inspired by architecture & design. Using sculpture, form and material gesture as a way in which to process information she asks questions about the past, present and future.
Claire studied at Goldsmiths college in London and has exhibited throughout the UK and also in Japan, France and Germany.
Selected Exhibitions
Forthcoming solo, High Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (2020)
Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, William Bennington Gallery, Buckinghamshire (2019)
Reconsider Walls, High Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (2019)
Skeleton Key (solo), Castor Projects, London (2018)
Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, William Bennington Gallery, Buckinghamshire (2018)
Manchester Contemporary, Castor Projects, Manchester (2017)
Affix, Ian Jackson & Claire Baily, Losers Gym, Nottingham (2017)
Dream On, Castor Projects, London (2016)
Adjustments to the Dark, Galerie IFF, France (2015)
Graver, Valchromat, brass 127.5 x 91 x 2.5 cm, 2018
Skeleton Key, Installation view, Castor Projects , 2018
Acey Deucey, Plaster, Brass 10 x 118 x 60 cm, 2018
Time At Hogchester Arts
Residency period - August 2021 (postponed from July 2020 due to covid)
My time spent at Hogchester Arts was the perfect injection of space & time as the pandemic thankfully started to drift into a more distant view. Working in further education the summer break is a natural time for me to refocus and question my practice and the residency at Hogchester gave me the breathing space to think about where I would like my practice to go over the next year.
The surroundings are beautiful and the site itself is incredibly peaceful. It didn’t take long for the effects of the rolling countryside & beautiful coastline to assuage my busy brain and with so much deep history in the area there is always something to discover. The hunt for an Ammonite can become quite addictive! The studio was brilliantly equipped and Chantal was a perfect studio partner and quite a tonic to the sometimes solitary nature of an artist residency.
During the residency I thought a lot about freeing up my default making practices, allowing a potentially more intuitive process to develop. Using armature wire, modelling mesh, plaster bandage & silicone putty I began to work on a series of works called ‘Wanderings’ which are based around the meandering paths of the walks I did along the Jurassic Coast before starting the residency itself. Using the armature wire as a fluid way to make 3-dimensional drawings I started to think about the choreography of our bodily movements through everyday repetitive actions and the paths we do or do not choose to follow. I am currently continuing these works in the studio and they will form part of a solo show taking place in 2022.
