Feeling Bruised: Claire Ashley Analysis
BruisedSpray paint on PVC-coated canvas tarpaulin and fan
2015
Claire Ashley is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland currently residing in Oak Park, IL while teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Contemporary Practices. Ashley has lived in the United States for a little over 20 years. Claire Ashley's exhibition Cawt, Taut, Hot ....Not was on view at University Galleries from May 21 - September 11, 2016. Upon entering entering the gallery, the viewer is greeted by her wall painting installation as well as her form Bruised made in 2015 and is approximately 8 x 8ft asymmetrical sculpture form.
Approaching the front entrance of Bruised's temporary home. Bruised is in isolation of its family gathered in the main living room of University Galleries. Seemingly more damaged skin than the rest. This is shown through its discoloration related to skin. It is neither high intensity neon nor the soft blue grey of Claire Ashley's other beings. The surface is comparable to violet bruised skin that that is in the process of its yellow healing stage. Continuously healing while simultaneously reacting to the touch of life. Even the stages of pinks, reds, oranges, and blues are present in the spray paint application on the cool tonal grey skin.
Bruised is realistically believable in relationship to human bodies. The combination of little spray particles, spaces of color, patched repairs, the various stretching of the canvas, and the metallic surface glow in the light from the window aside from it. The handmade canvas tarpaulin creates more bulging appendages. An essence of wrinkling age is presented through the creases or the bending of a limb with the touching of skin.
The installation of Bruised near a ledge invites the viewer to live closely in the space while sitting next to the being. I began searching beyond the outermost surfaces and into the space between the wall and the body. My eyes wondered through a thin space finding a hidden hand sewn patch of repair almost perfectly diagonally from the patch above the top of the form. As if to be grabbed by a higher bigger being.
Aside from Claire Ashley's installation view of her beings, she conducts performances of these beings interacting with the outside world. With this in mind, Bruised takes on the position of hibernation or a sleep-like state. The fan generating its ability to hold form and continue its own life creating the silent sound of breathing. Bruised embodies an energy related to that of a living being. Claire Ashley's forms reach beyond the realm of an object, they are as much us as we are them.
-Marisa Boyd
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