Claire Brewster: October 2012

22 Oct 2012

The First Cut - the finished installations

Here are some shots of the finished installations, taken at the opening. The BF was in charge of photography, so I could pose away!

It was a great evening, very busy and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I even had people wanting me to sign their catalogue, I felt like a right celebrity. One of the people who asked me to sign their catalogue was the designer of it. He made the comment that he liked the page that had my birds on it because it was so free - one of the best comments I have ever had, as that is really what I am trying to express in my work, freedom and beauty.

Any way, here are the photos, I would love to know what you think.

An Apocalypse of Butterflies (c) Claire Brewster 2012 -The finished piece

An Apocalypse of Butterflies (c) Claire Brewster 2012 - looking up in wonder

An Apocalypse of Butterflies (c) Claire Brewster 2012 - from the side

An Apocalypse of Butterflies (c) Claire Brewster 2012 - getting in close

An Apocalypse of Butterflies (c) Claire Brewster 2012 - this seemed to be the pose of the night

The Harbingers (c) Claire Brewster 2011 - my pink tights were much commented on

The Harbingers (c) Claire Brewster 2011

19 Oct 2012

The First Cut - The Harbingers Installation

Following on from installing An Apocalypse of Butterflies, I also had to install The Harbingers. This was a lot easier as I had installed it before and it was in the main exhibition room, so I wasn't on show to the public. It was also great to be installing with the other artists and to see how the curators put the final touches to the exhibition.

So here are a few photos of the install. I didn't take as many as with An Apocalypse of Butterflies, mainly because I was quite tired and had to get the installation finished so I didn't have to come back on the day of the opening to finish it off.

Starting off

A few more birds

From a distance...

15 Oct 2012

First Cut - Installation of An Apocalypse of Butterflies

It was really great to be able to go and install my work in Manchester Art Gallery, for the First Cut exhibition. It's the first time that I have installed my work in a museum, so I was very excited and a bit nervous, if there was ever a time to raise my game it was now!

I was still finishing one of my pieces the day before and was glad to see when I arrived that one of the other artists was still making his piece as well.

For the exhibition I was installing 2 pieces, An Apocalypse of Butterflies and the Harbingers. The butterflies were a site specific piece for the one of the Pre Raphaelite galleries. I was installing in front of a Millais painting, which was a little nerve wracking to say the least! And up a very high ladder! The installation took about 10 hours, and was quite intense especially as the gallery was open to the public whilst I was installing.

It was really good fun though and the team at Manchester were really great and made everything so easy. One of the best things about the install was the other artists that were also installing, it was great to be able to chat with them and see their work taking shape as the installed it. I will be posting about some of them in later posts but for now here are some images of the Apocalypse install.

making a start..

Looking down!

Me on top!

Getting there

Me and the ladder became very good friends

almost finished...

1 Oct 2012

An Apocalypse of Butterflies

Hi all

I am off to Manchester this week to install my work in Manchester Art Gallery as part of the First Cut Exhibition.

The gallery commissioned me to make a piece of work to be installed in one of the Pre Raphaelite galleries. The piece I made is called An Apocalypse of Butterflies. I was inspired by an article I read about how the very wet summer we had here in the UK was apocalyptic for British butterflies.

Whilst I was researching the piece I was also reading about the Pre Raphaelites and one of their doctrines was:

to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express them

which struck a chord with me. I was also reading about when Manchester Art Gallery was first started, which was a time of great discoveries and collecting of flora and fauna and discovering new species. So this all came together in an installation of about 60 butterflies that will be pinned directly to the wall around some Millais Paintings (no pressure there!). The butterflies are cut from Orographical Features maps of Great Britain and are all butterflies that are endangered or getting that way.

This piece of work has taken a long time to complete, I've been working on it for what seems like months, but somehow it took a long time before I really understood it and could get the butterflies to look how I wanted them to look (or more of less). I will post some images of the installation once it's up but for now here are some details. I would love to hear what you think.

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