Nomas* Projects / Art, Dundee

Being Present

BEING PRESENT

“Being Present” is a personal contemplation on the nature of being and, as an artist, on the process of bringing into being.

My recent work has sought to blur the distinction between animate and inanimate object, consisting of large groups of clustered, stacked forms that reference the built environment. The restrictions imposed by the dimensions of Nomas Projects have required me to reduce the scale of my work. This change in scale has in turn led to a change in direction. Shrinking things down to a more human, more domestic scale has also brought about a shift in focus and turned my attention towards creating more deliberately figurative forms. It has also led me to ask what exactly is it that is required to be recognisably human? What elements may be added or taken away for something to be seen as distinctly ‘being’?

In this playful exploration I have enjoyed pushing the boundaries of figurative representation and stretching the use of elements to perhaps not yet absurd enough levels. It has been interesting, as part of the creative process, to see just how minimal a form can be and yet appear convincingly and satisfyingly human. Not all upright forms are enough. Not everything that appears to have a head or a face will do, and many components will lie untouched in my box of possibilities forever. There is a stage, however, in the process of construction that a piece of work stops being a collection of components and makes the transition from object to entity. Each of the simple figures here have stepped beyond that invisible threshold, and have come into being.

Artist's Bio

Paola McClure was born and brought up in Dundee. She graduated from DJCAD in 1980 as one of the first cohort to graduate with a degree rather than a diploma. Although her degree was in Illustration & Printmaking, McClure’s work quickly turned to the use of 3-dimensional form. She worked in textile and mixed media construction while gradually developing her own techniques in soft sculpture and embracing this as her main practice. She completed her MFA&H in 2018 at DJCAD and was Artist in Residence at the college from 2019-20. Her work now revolves around carved and cast media and found object assemblage. McClure has exhibited widely across the UK and abroad. She has worked in education and arts administration and currently works from her studio in Wasps Meadow Mill, Dundee where she shares the unglamourous role of studio rep and is a member of the curation panel.

Artist's Website

• facebook.com/paolamcclurevisualart/