ARTIST STATEMENT
Linda Clark’s practice explores the complex interrelationship between the roles of mother and artist as a potential strategy to address the issue of maternal periphery.[1] This is defined as the physical or psychological feeling of being outside arts discourse as experienced by regional women artists. The nature of Clark’s Doctoral research interrogates her role as a mother and a contemporary artist as an inseparable challenge.[2] Both of these experiences are conceptually and theoretically informed by her personal experiences and practice. Clark’s research utilises an interdisciplinary approach that is initiated through her practice, incorporating multifaceted interactions of artmaking in hybrid forms including conceptual art, video, installation and sculpture. In conjunction with these art forms, her work is also informed by interpersonal and collaborative relationships, alongside research which explores areas such as identity, maternity and feminism. Through her practice, Clark has devised a ‘Mother-Artist Model’ (MAM) as a conceptual framework for practice and a form of intentional documentation. The model is embedded within the artist’s need to explore through making, thinking, researching and interacting with her children through the intertwined roles of the mother-artist. In this exploration, she is not merely engaged with the subject matter of motherhood, rather her practice is located in everyday ritual and complex exchanges between herself and her children. The artist employs these interactions as a method through the MAM in her role as “facilitator, constructor and keeper of memory”. MAM has been applied to other mother-artists and holds broader resonance across regional communities.
[1] Chernick, M., & Klein J. (Eds.). (2011). The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art. Bradford, ON: Demeter Press. Liss, A. (2009). Feminist Art and the Maternal. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
[2] Kerby, M. C., Baguley, M. M., Batorowicz, B. A., & Clark, L. N. (2017). Implementing a new Doctor of Creative Arts program in the Chinese year of the fire monkey. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, p.3. doi: 10.1177/1474022217715274
Linda Clark’s practice explores the complex interrelationship between the roles of mother and artist as a potential strategy to address the issue of maternal periphery.[1] This is defined as the physical or psychological feeling of being outside arts discourse as experienced by regional women artists. The nature of Clark’s Doctoral research interrogates her role as a mother and a contemporary artist as an inseparable challenge.[2] Both of these experiences are conceptually and theoretically informed by her personal experiences and practice. Clark’s research utilises an interdisciplinary approach that is initiated through her practice, incorporating multifaceted interactions of artmaking in hybrid forms including conceptual art, video, installation and sculpture. In conjunction with these art forms, her work is also informed by interpersonal and collaborative relationships, alongside research which explores areas such as identity, maternity and feminism. Through her practice, Clark has devised a ‘Mother-Artist Model’ (MAM) as a conceptual framework for practice and a form of intentional documentation. The model is embedded within the artist’s need to explore through making, thinking, researching and interacting with her children through the intertwined roles of the mother-artist. In this exploration, she is not merely engaged with the subject matter of motherhood, rather her practice is located in everyday ritual and complex exchanges between herself and her children. The artist employs these interactions as a method through the MAM in her role as “facilitator, constructor and keeper of memory”. MAM has been applied to other mother-artists and holds broader resonance across regional communities.
[1] Chernick, M., & Klein J. (Eds.). (2011). The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art. Bradford, ON: Demeter Press. Liss, A. (2009). Feminist Art and the Maternal. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
[2] Kerby, M. C., Baguley, M. M., Batorowicz, B. A., & Clark, L. N. (2017). Implementing a new Doctor of Creative Arts program in the Chinese year of the fire monkey. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, p.3. doi: 10.1177/1474022217715274
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BIO
Linda Clark is an emerging installation artist exhibiting nationally and internationally. Her work has been included in key exhibitions such as Antipods: Magical Creatures with Backward Feet at University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and Down the Rabbit Hole at the Queensland College of Art. Clark has recently engaged in both local and international curatorial projects such as Mother at USQ Artworx, and the research project Antipods: Magical Creatures with Backward Feet with University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Building on practice based research outcomes achieved within the Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours, Clark recently completed a practice based visual art research project within the Doctor of Creative Arts at the University of Southern Queensland. |
REVIEWS AND ESSAYS
Mirror, Mirror, Mother. Make it Clear that I am Other by Louise Martin-Chew, Bearing Witness: Absence Exhibition Essay for Outerspace ARI, September, 2019. Down the Rabbit Hole: reorienting contemporary art practice by Beth Jackson, in Art Monthly, Vol. 266, Summer Issue 2013/2014. Critical Essay by Raymonda Rajkowski for Promise Program 2012 Catalogue. HYBRID PRACTICE 2014 Bone Woman .... When All is Gone Multimedia and Sculptural Installation for the Dance Performance Bone Woman.....When All is Gone at the Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Qld. AWARDS 2017 / Contemporary Art Awards Finalist 2016 / Queensland Regional Art Award Gray Puksand Digital Award 2015 / USQ University Medal 2011 / USQ Faculty of Arts, Rosemary Lakerink Award for Outstanding Studio Practice. |
EXHIBITIONS
2022 | Undercurrent Research Exhibition, UniSQ Art Gallery, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. 2022 | Threshold Songs, UniSQ Art Gallery, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. 2021 | New Stories, USQ Art Gallery, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. 2021 / deLight Project SPARK Ipswich, Ipswich, Queensland. 2019 / Bearing Witness: Absence Exhibition Outerspace ARI, Brisbane, Queensland 2019 / Tethered: Embodying the Mother-Artist Model | Doctor of Creative Arts Examination Exhibition | USQ Art Gallery, Toowoomba 2018 / Dark Rituals: Magical Relics From the Little Art Spell Book | University of Sunshine Coast Gallery, Academy Gallery, Inveresk, Launceston & University of Saskatchewan Gallery | Project Funding - Australia Council for the Arts 2017 / Motion Capture Film Festival Finalist Showcase 2017 / Contemporary Art Awards Finalist Online Exhibition 2017 / Outside In | St Vincent’s Hospital Gallery, Brisbane. 2016 / Subversive Spaces Artsworx, USQ Toowoomba 2016 / Queensland Regional Art Awards Travelling to regional Queensland and the Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane. 2015 / Magical Creatures with Backward Feet University of Saskatchewan, Canada. 2015 / Subversive Spaces The Hold Artspace & QCA, Brisbane, Australia 2015 / Intertwined ANU School of Art, Canberra, Australia 2015 / Mother Artsworx Gallery, USQ Toowoomba. 2014 / Superfluity Artsworx Gallery, USQ Toowoomba 2014 / Waterways Public Art Project Toowoomba, Queensland 2013 / Down the Rabbit Hole Queensland College of Art, Brisbane and University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. 2012 / Promise Program 2012 Metro Arts, Edward Street, Brisbane. 2011 / Graduart Exhibition University of Southern Queensland and Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery 2011 / Critical Craftings, Unleashed Emerging Artist Exhibition Artisan Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland 2011 / 2010 / USQ Guild Exhibition University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba 2010 / Curious Spaces Exhibition John Mullins Memorial Art Gallery, Dogwood Crossing, Miles, Queensland. |
