Clare Phelan

Clare Phelan is a visual artist using print and installation to explore the multiple dimensions of the print matrix. Influenced by the post industrial landscape of Northern England where she has lived all her life, her current practice utilises nineteenth and twentieth century coding technology artefacts such as textile jacquards, music box discs and IBM punch cards.

She explores these artefacts as carriers of narrative, the paper creases and the rusty damaged metal tell the story of obsolete technologies. They hold memories of their past, making and function. They also evoke memories of those who made and used them.

The traditional analogue printmaking processes she employs echo the labour inherent in the making of these materials, while the binary language of the machine dances in rhythmic patterns through her work as a signifier of our digital age.

Winner of the inaugural ‘Scott Creative Arts Foundation’ Emerging Artist award, Clare was also shortlisted for the ‘London Contemporary Art’ Prize in 2019, she was also awarded the Intaglio Printmakers prize at the ‘Flourish Award’ for Excellence in Printmaking in 2019.