Clare Plug . About

In October 2006 Clare had the tremendous privilege to travel to Scott Base for 2 weeks as an Antarctica NZ/Creative NZ Antarctic Artists Fellow.

This was a profoundly magical & inspirational experience for her.
The result is the exhibition “Look South”, of 15 quilts and 16 banners, which is showing at the HB Museum & Art Gallery in Napier until 1 November 2009, and then Tour.
 
Influences: In creating these, & her ongoing Antarctic Series of textile works, she explains she is seeking to explore aspects of the landscape, history and science of the Antarctic continent which she sees as, at once a ‘time capsule’, an “ark’ & an ‘early warning station’.

Her preparatory reading and research for this project has spanned the history, geography, science, & particularly climate research, of the continent.

Antarctic textiles, too, have provided her with a rich source of inspiration These include the historic silk sledging banners of the Heroic Era explorers, symbolic of the nationalism & values of those men who carried them, through to the tattered marker flags of today, to her so evocative of the harsh environment & also its fragility and vulnerability.
 
2009 Exhibitions:
Feel of Fibre, Waiheke Community Art Gallery, Waiheke Island, NZ
Made In New Zealand II, Ste Marie-aux-Mines, France.
Celebration of the Stitch, Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, NZ
Change in the Weather, Minerva Gallery, Wellington, & The Cloakroom, Queenstown, NZ
Look South, Solo exhibition, Hawke’s Bay Museum & Art Gallery, Napier, & NZ Tour
Quilt National ’09, The Dairy Barn, Athens, Ohio, USA & Tour
Changing Threads, The Refinery Artspace, Nelson NZ.
Post Stitch, Invited artist, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland, NZ
12 Voices, Tour 2009-11,USA

Recent Publications:
Made In New Zealand II, exhibition catalogue, September 2009
Look South, Solo exhibition catalogue, May 2009
Quilt National ’09, Lark Books, May 2009
Post Stitch, exhibition catalogue, December 2008

Awards:
Changing Threads Creative Craft Supplies Award 2009
Antarctica NZ Artists to Antarctica, Artist Fellow 2006/7
Hawkes Bay Review-Supreme and Fibre Awards 2005; Fibre Awards 2003, 2002; Craft 2001
Quilt National USA-Jurors Award 2005; Surface Design Award 2003