Artist In Residency
2020
Tilda Mae Clarke
Firmly grounded in a multidisciplinary and exploratory approach to creating work, Tilda Clarke’s practice aims to find the common threads between installation, performance, video, tattooing, painting and sculpture.
Giving insight into the unbound therapeutic potential of art making, her practice maps both physical and emotional landscapes through the use of natural, and found materials.
Clarke aims to unravel the impacts of trauma on the body, seeking to understand the response of PTSD derived from personal experience.
“I am currently undertaking an Artist In Residency at Gallery 17 in Naarm. This opportunity has allowed me to be in a studio space with other artists who explore similar themes and values. I am unravelling ideas between physical movement and material through documented performance as I work alongside dancers and musicians. I emphasise materiality and use of the body, leaving an energetic trace on canvas.
I have spent significant time in the natural landscapes of so-called Australia and consequentially, have formed a deep, therapeutic relationship with the natural world. I feel universal stress, both physically and emotionally. This brings up deep traumas within my body - I find salvation back in nature.
Recently, I have been working with organic materials to cope and unravel stored trauma. I am grateful for this opportunity. Isolation has given me significant perspective on my life and the state of the earth.
My inspiration comes from personal experiences with life and death, the natural world and psychology. I gain understanding from artists such as Berlinde De Bruyckere’s We Are All Flesh (2013), Anslem Kiefer’s sculptural works and Andy Goldsworthy’s every-changing works with nature.
The constant change in environment since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided me with insight into how our mind is malleable and in constant change as it adapts to new environments and ideas. I will continue my exploration of performance and the potential to evoke new understandings of myself.”
— Tilda Mae Clarke
