Clare Phelan
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Clare Phelan is a visual artist using print and installation to explore the multiple dimensions of the print matrix. She has developed an interest in collecting and reworking mass produced redundant artefacts which often become her print plate/surface.
Influenced by the post industrial landscapes of Northern England where she has lived all her life, her current practice utilises many nineteenth and twentieth century coding technology artefacts such as textile jacquards, music box discs and IBM punch cards.
She explores these artefacts as carriers of narrative, the paper creases and the rusty damaged metal tell stories of obsolete technologies. They evoke memories of those who made and used them. The traditional analogue printmaking processes she employs echo the labour inherent in the making of these materials, while the binary language of the machine dances in rhythmic patterns through her work as a signifier of our digital age.
The ‘confetti’ motif, screen printed across the surface of the installation piece exhibited at WCPF 2024 was inspired by stories of how the ‘punched out’ physical waste from computer punch cards was used as confetti by company employees in the mid-twentieth century.
In 2023 Clare was selected to install a large site specific installation in the South Transept of Wells Cathedral, Somerset. She also received the St Cuthberts Mill award for work exhibited as part of ‘Wells Art Contemporary’ exhibition within the cloisters of the cathedral.
Clare has exhibited in Galleries and Art Fairs across the UK and her work is held in private collections in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. She is currently represented by Saul Hay Gallery in Manchester and works from her printmaking studio in Holmfirth and at Hot Bed Press in Salford.
“There’s a cycle of history through ordinary lives, of which Phelan has become an intrinsic player. Time is elasticised, bouncing back and forth as she uncovers objects that have lost their purpose, relics that she can re- use, and for their earlier stories to be re-told. The narratives are materially held in Phelan’s captivating work; each print bearing witness to the past.”
Dr Wendy Rhodes, Printmaking Today, Vol 31, Summer 2022, Issue 122, pp 16-18.
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Clare Phelan is a visual artist using print and installation to explore the multiple dimensions of the print matrix. She has developed an interest in collecting and reworking mass produced redundant artefacts which often become her print plate/surface.
Influenced by the post industrial landscapes of Northern England where she has lived all her life, her current practice utilises many nineteenth and twentieth century coding technology artefacts such as textile jacquards, music box discs and IBM punch cards.
She explores these artefacts as carriers of narrative, the paper creases and the rusty damaged metal tell stories of obsolete technologies. They evoke memories of those who made and used them. The traditional analogue printmaking processes she employs echo the labour inherent in the making of these materials, while the binary language of the machine dances in rhythmic patterns through her work as a signifier of our digital age.
The ‘confetti’ motif, screen printed across the surface of the installation piece exhibited at WCPF 2024 was inspired by stories of how the ‘punched out’ physical waste from computer punch cards was used as confetti by company employees in the mid-twentieth century.
In 2023 Clare was selected to install a large site specific installation in the South Transept of Wells Cathedral, Somerset. She also received the St Cuthberts Mill award for work exhibited as part of ‘Wells Art Contemporary’ exhibition within the cloisters of the cathedral.
Clare has exhibited in Galleries and Art Fairs across the UK and her work is held in private collections in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. She is currently represented by Saul Hay Gallery in Manchester and works from her printmaking studio in Holmfirth and at Hot Bed Press in Salford.
“There’s a cycle of history through ordinary lives, of which Phelan has become an intrinsic player. Time is elasticised, bouncing back and forth as she uncovers objects that have lost their purpose, relics that she can re- use, and for their earlier stories to be re-told. The narratives are materially held in Phelan’s captivating work; each print bearing witness to the past.”
Dr Wendy Rhodes, Printmaking Today, Vol 31, Summer 2022, Issue 122, pp 16-18.
Clare Phelan is a visual artist using print and installation to explore the multiple dimensions of the print matrix. She has developed an interest in collecting and reworking mass produced redundant artefacts which often become her print plate/surface.
Influenced by the post industrial landscapes of Northern England where she has lived all her life, her current practice utilises many nineteenth and twentieth century coding technology artefacts such as textile jacquards, music box discs and IBM punch cards.
She explores these artefacts as carriers of narrative, the paper creases and the rusty damaged metal tell stories of obsolete technologies. They evoke memories of those who made and used them. The traditional analogue printmaking processes she employs echo the labour inherent in the making of these materials, while the binary language of the machine dances in rhythmic patterns through her work as a signifier of our digital age.
The ‘confetti’ motif, screen printed across the surface of the installation piece exhibited at WCPF 2024 was inspired by stories of how the ‘punched out’ physical waste from computer punch cards was used as confetti by company employees in the mid-twentieth century.
In 2023 Clare was selected to install a large site specific installation in the South Transept of Wells Cathedral, Somerset. She also received the St Cuthberts Mill award for work exhibited as part of ‘Wells Art Contemporary’ exhibition within the cloisters of the cathedral.
Clare has exhibited in Galleries and Art Fairs across the UK and her work is held in private collections in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. She is currently represented by Saul Hay Gallery in Manchester and works from her printmaking studio in Holmfirth and at Hot Bed Press in Salford.
“There’s a cycle of history through ordinary lives, of which Phelan has become an intrinsic player. Time is elasticised, bouncing back and forth as she uncovers objects that have lost their purpose, relics that she can re- use, and for their earlier stories to be re-told. The narratives are materially held in Phelan’s captivating work; each print bearing witness to the past.”
Dr Wendy Rhodes, Printmaking Today, Vol 31, Summer 2022, Issue 122, pp 16-18.