Claire Benn

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Previously shown in

Her quiet materials 2021

Warp weft stitch thread 2021

Fibre: structure and surface 2022

Earth materials 2023

Unearthed 2023

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Cloth and clay 2024

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These works draw inspiration from the land, but this time Claire went beneath the surface to go back in time and dig more deeply. She buried antique French hemp in the soil over the winter, digging it up in April to discover it had been delicately tinted and eaten away – these became her ‘fragments’.  

These fragments - along with other pigment-painted pieces of cloth - spoke to Claire of ancient ground. This led her to archaeology and the grave goods or findings that might be discovered in the earth, and she commissioned Sylvia Quinnell to make small silver and bronze artefacts to stitch to the cloth.

Claire also has a stash of antique cloth.  Digging into it, she excavated an old French grain sack, nicely holed with some lines of murky blue warp thread.  She took this with her to a three-week retreat in north-west Scotland; the colour of the sack became the bracken, the blue lines became the rivers, the holes became the lochs and through intensive stitch, she created the shore. ‘The Land, the Lochs, the Rivers and the Shore’ is therefore firmly rooted in her love of landscape and the far north-west.

Click images for details and if you are interested in any of Claire Benn's work please enquire below.