Clare Twomey

Consciousness/Conscience

Between 2001-2004 Consciousness/conscience was exhibited in a variety of places including the Tate, Liverpool; Crafts Council, London; and Icheon, Korea. Depending on where it was exhibited 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 under foot, causing the viewer to be an active participant, and challenging the viewer's perception of space in the gallery. The artwork was thus completed through the destruction of the tiles. Consciousness/Conscience shows "Clare’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 trophys 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 for Modern Art-for 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. Tension was also created in the title, "Twomey deliberately sets up a tension between the threat of obliterations and the title of the work"

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.

Collecting the Edge

In 2011 Twomey created a museum wide installation at the Denver Art Museum in conjunction with Overthrown, Clay without Limits. This group show included artist such as Annabeth Rosen, Kristen Morgin, Jeanne Quinn, Walter McConnell, Heather Mae Ericsson, and Kim Dickey as well as many others. Collecting the Edges brought attention to the museum's architecture by creating a visual intervention which highlighted corners, ceilings and other spaces in the museum. Collecting the Edges piled red, powdered, Colorado clay into these specific spaces spreading the exhibition throughout the whole museum. In an interview in Ceramics Now, Twomey stated "When visiting a site, one must arrive with a very open mind, I had our first visit with no planned ideas for the work. I made a response to the architecture experienced, and this was vastly influential with the development of the concept." She then goes on to state that she sees this piece as "A reminder of a moment in time, rather than a demand."

Humanity is in our Hands

For Humanity In Our Hands, Clare Twomey, along with many other artists worked with the Keep the Memory Alive project, whose mission is to pair survivors of genocide with artists to bring their stories to life for the next generation. Twomey was paired with Siskc Jakupovic, who survived the Omarska Concentration Camp in the Bosnian War. In one of their exchanges Jakupovic shared a story about how in the concentration camp, they carved spoons for each other out of wood and shards of broken glass. From this story, and with the analogy that spoons can nurture and feed each other, Twomey created her piece, Humanity is in our Hands.

On January 27, 2015, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Twomey distributed invitations to people walking over Westminster Bridge. "Today you are invited to be part of a new work, your words will be placed on thousands of beautiful porcelain objects that will be made in the coming year. These objects will be handed back to the public as gifts on Westminster Bridge, on this date one year from now, 27th of January 2016. The recipients will become custodians of your thoughts." The question she asked the pedestrians walking over the bridge was 'What human qualities allow society of flourish?' Over the next year Twomey created 2000 porcelain spoons with the answers she received. The following year, on January 27, 2016, she gave the spoons back to the pedestrians on the bridge.

Exhibits

Awards

Twomey has received the following awards: AHRC Behind the Scenes at the Museum from University of Westminster, London in 2011, the ACE funding Specimen from The Royal Academy in 2010, in 2004, Twomey became an AHRC Research Fellow with the University of Westminster in London, in 2002 the London Visual Arts Fund put her on the London Arts Board, in 2001 she won the City of Nyon Exhibition Prize at the Porcelain Triennial Exhibition as well as the Selected Makers index Crags Council, in 1999 Twomey received an exhibition prize at Ceramic Contemporaries 3 and in 1998 she received a membership award at the Royal British Sculpture Society.

Public Collections

Twomey's work is included in the following collections: Swiss National Museum, in Nyon, Switzerland, the Museo Internazionale Delle Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy, the Hungarian National Ceramics Collection in Kesckemet Hungary, in the entrance atrium at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, the national archive of The Wedgwood Collection in Great Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.