Claire McArdle
About the Works
Outfit (top and pants), 2023
reused cotton bed sheet with pockets from a scrap of fabric, both from the op shop
$500
Rocker (half size), 2023
reused aluminium from the scrapyard
$650
Neckpieces (half size) (8), 2023
reused aluminium, thread twined from the same cotton bed sheet as Outfit
$100 each
Texturing through Rocking, 2023
25-second video on loop
This work draws from the repeated actions of the maker in a contemporary jewellery context. Back and forth rocks the tool, combining with the weight of the artist to form marks in the aluminium neckpieces beneath. The wavy lines filed into the bottom edges of the tool are imprinted again and again on the surfaces of the neckpieces. The reverse of each neckpiece bears the texture of the concrete floor on which the making action was performed. The act is documented through the video and the surface markings on the neckpieces.
The tool is made from recycled aluminium, the outfit from a second-hand cotton bed sheet and each neckpiece has a string twined from the threads of the same bed sheet.
This is the second iteration of the work Texturing through Rocking (2023), with the rocker and neckpieces reduced to half the original size.
About Claire McArdle
Claire McArdle is currently undertaking a PhD at RMIT University, Melbourne. She has held solo exhibitions in Australia, Estonia, Germany and Thailand and her work has been exhibited in Thailand, Hong Kong, USA, UK, Germany, France, Estonia, Austria and The Netherlands.
Claire won the Itami Award at the 2019 ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition in Japan, first prize at both Contemporary Wearables '13, the National Contemporary Jewellery Award in 2016 and received the Excellence Award at theVictorian Craft Awards in 2017.
Image top: Claire McArdle, Rocker, 2023, courtesy of the artist
Claire McArdle, Studio portrait Photo: Courtesy of the Artist