Claire Brewster

Profile/CV

The artist, as an outsider, is ideally placed for picking up that which has been chucked out. Claire Brewster’s work is about retrieving the discarded, celebrating the unwanted and giving new life to the obsolete.  Claire uses old and out of date maps and atlases as her fabric with which to create her intricate, delicate and detailed paper cuts. 

Nature is ever present even in the most urban of environments, taking over wherever we neglect, yet living in a separate lives.  Affected by our actions yet unconscious of them.  Claire takes inspiration from this environment, creating entomological installations of flora and fauna from imagined locations.  Her birds, insects and flowers transcend borders and pass freely between countries with scant regard for rules of immigration or the effects of biodiversity.

The paper cuts are pinned either directly on to the wall as a large scale installation or captured in box frames.  The shadows created when light is shined on them gives them a three dimensional quality and creates a feeling of movement.

Claire grew up in Lincolnshire and has been living and working in London for over 20 years where she finds inspiration from the urban environment she now lives.