HEALING IS A DUTY AND AN ACTION / SHAME CANNOT BE SEPARATED

Claire Wright is a queer multidisciplinary artist and musician currently in her fourth year of the studio art program. With emergent themes exploring catharsis, experiential polarities, the body, nature, shame, and vulnerability, her work speaks to the deep-seated desire for human connection, personal and community care, and reconciliation with discordant experiences of the Self. Reflecting upon her positionality as a white settler in relation to the land she occupies, there is a conscious intent to begin uncovering hidden truths of her identity, motivating performative actions as an attempt to acknowledge and bridge the gap between colonial attitudes and reciprocal relationships to nature. Perceiving a lack of spiritual engagement within her own upbringing and cultural history due to a nonpresence of ancestral knowledge and tradition, and acknowledging her past experiences with self harm and pain, she seeks to mend feelings of disconnect by carving out healing spaces and experiences for herself.

Working with installation and the body as a sculptural tool, she embodies the tying together of conceptual ideas through physical action and gesture, and is interested in how site specific intersections of space and sound work together to elicit visceral reactions through emotional and physical resonances and dissonances.This process of creation involves ritualistic preparation, engagement with the self, and converses with the experience of presence. Maximalist tendencies towards colour and materials, such as through the accumulation of thrifted and  found blankets, textiles, and natural materials, speak to the desire for comfort and vibrant expression in the external world as a reflection of internal worlds; to be smothered with care both inside and out.

Following this interest in exploring her own identity as it relates to shame, the body, and vulnerability, she plans on opening a facet of her being that has yet to be tapped into within her artistic endeavors: her identity as a queer woman. It is a part of her that has yet to be celebrated in its fullness, as fear has held a firm grip on this expression for most of her life. To unify the mind, body, and spirit to reach a place of radical self acceptance is the primary goal of her practice, approaching this learning with an openness and drive to bring collective understanding and healing to those around her.