Exhibits,

Claire Gallagher Failed Gardener III

Opening: Tuesday 31 January, 6-8pm Dates: 31 January-18 February 2012

‘Failed Gardener III’ attempts to investigate the urge to structure creative work through frames and containers. The elements of time, space and growth are pivotal as is the recognition that there is an element of cruelty present in the work, a determination to trap and preserve life.

Claire Gallagher is an emerging installation artist from Melbourne. After completing her Honours Degree in Fine Art (Drawing) at Victorian College of the Arts she spent most of 2010 travelling Europe, India and Nepal. Claire returned to Melbourne in 2011 to continue her installation and drawing work.

In Gallagher’s world light emanates around living, breathing plants, which require light, water and soil to survive. Large transparent boxes and live plants situate the viewer in an uncomfortable realm between the living and the dead. Gallagher cites the human desire to contain living organisms as a topic that has consumed her thoughts, inducing an evolutionary role for her as an artist: “I have adapted the multifaceted role of nurturer, murderer, playful child and deranged scientist.”