claire morgan: quietus

‘the beauty and the beast’ bluebottles, a morpho butterfly, nylon, lead, acrylic 102 x 52 x 9 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve

claire morgan: quietus karsten greve gallery, paris on now through november 3rd, 2012

karsten greve gallerypresents the second solo show of london-based artist claire morgan with an exhibition entitled ‘quietus’. the mixed media installations represent morgan’s inquiry into the desperation – through life and death – of a society wanting to control the world around them. referencing nature through the material used to inform the sculptures, not only physically but also metaphorically, morgan meticulously assembles feathers, taxidermy and other organic material to express the scale of impact the environment has on us. through these complex artworks morgan is able to articulate her understanding of human existence – that it is only an ephemeral and inconsequential element of nature’s beauty.

morgan says of her work:

‘my attention has been drawn to the cheap distractions we choose to place in our immediate vicinity, with which to screen us from the overwhelming facts: that we are nothing; that our only certainty as individuals is a life, of unspecified duration, and then a death.’

the exhibition comprehensively reflects that of death – or that which causes death – to be considered a release from life, with a serene, soothing effect, serving to suppress or eliminate, communicating morgan’s ongoing exploration of the human condition.

‘here is the end of all things’, 2011 thistle seeds, bluebottles, a taxidermy barn owl, nylon, lead, acrylic four parts, each measuring 240 x 150 x 150 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve exhibited at: bestes, bestiaux, et bestioles, château d’oiron, france, 2011 bêtes off, la conciergerie, paris, 2012 agora – miniartextil como, villa olmo, como, italy 6th october – 18th november 2012

‘nipple’ thistle seeds,  bluebottles, nylon, lead, acrylic 230 x 18 x 18 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten grev

‘heart of darkness (II)’ bluebottles, nylon, lead, acrylic 240 x 52 x 52 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve

‘the colossus’ torn polythene, a taxidermy mute swan, nylon, lead, acrylic 300 x 188 x 184 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve

‘down time’, 2010 taxidermy jackdaw, strawberries, bluebottles, fruit flies, lead, nylon, acrylic dimensions variable. the layer of strawberries grew from 2.5 x 2.5 m to around 2.5 x 5 m over the course of the 2-month exhibition image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve exhibited at: on and on, la casa encendida, madrid, 2010

‘folly’, 2012 dandelion seeds, a gold-ringed dragon fly, nylon, in display case 73 x 40.1 x 54.5 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve

‘the birds and the bees’ honey bees, taxidermy blackbirds, plant pigment (saffron), nylon, lead, acrylic 240 x 84 x 84 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve

‘terminal’ torn polythene, a taxidermy herring gull (juvenile), nylon, lead, acrylic 250 x 99 x 99 cm image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve

‘garden’, 2010 two taxidermy dunnocks, privet leaves, lead, nylon, acrylic 0.8m x 0.8m x 2.2m (h) from ceiling image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve exhibited at: suspense, EX3 centre for contemporary art, florence, 2011 tracing reality, galerie kashya hildebrand, zurich, 2010 heart of glass, 20 hoxton square, london, 2010

room 3 – installation view sculptures left-right ‘endless’, ‘nipple’, ‘the birds and the bees’, ‘you are my sunshine’ details can be found within the list above image © claire morgan courtesy galerie karsten greve