28 July – 27 September
Master Bedroom
This exhibition is supported by the Arts Trust and Jan Warburton Charitable Trust and is in association with the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic. Tori Clearwater is the 2018 recipient of the JW & Jan Warburton Graduate Exhibition Scholarship.
One of the greatest hurdles for any fine arts graduate embarking on a career as a professional artist is to secure opportunities to exhibit in Auckland and/or to be represented by an Auckland commercial gallery. This Scholarship provides selected graduating students with an opportunity to exhibit at the prestigious Wallace Arts Centre, Pah Homestead in Auckland, including a targeted introduction to the Auckland art market.
Tori Clearwater is a contemporary Dunedin based artist working on incorporating environmental data and statistics into sculptural works. She graduated from the Dunedin school of art in 2018 with a Bachelor of Visual Art with honours. She incorporates found materials to create representational works that comment on the state of the environment.
Tori Clearwater, Eco-Anxiety: a self portrait, 2020
ARTIST STATEMENT
What future? is a question of pressing environmental issues.
What future? questions the way we treat the world, exploring the internal struggle of pressing environmental issues that we face.
What future? uses sculpture to engage, educate and personally process feelings for this crisis.
The three works Doomsday, Self Portrait and the Sixth Extinction each address issues of climate and of mental and emotional health. Doomsday’s ticking clocks will immerse the viewer and make them conscious of the overwhelming time pressure. Each clock face presents a fact about the environment and the 24 clocks represent the 24 time zones of the world. This collective problem can only be solved with collective effort.
The kneeling figure is a Self-Portrait of me, the artist, and is made from my own accumulated waste. She is blistered and suffocated by the plastic that encases and swallows her body. The zero-waste movement is very feminized, as the woman is the homemaker, shopper and caretaker. Household purchases are largely her responsibility and the societal pressure to be perfect is crippling. The obligation to consume in line with your values while also maintaining the household is another unrealistic expectation weighing on women. This work reflects my consumerism, a portrait of my not so perfect habits and a lasting mark that I was here. As hard as I try, I am just one, and in the face of a global problem what is that worth? What would your self-portrait look like?
The Sixth Extinction depicts the previous worldwide mass extinctions that shaped the world as we know it today. The sixth work shows species expected to go extinct in the very near future during the Anthropocene, or the geologic age of humans. Each work is made of waste plastic which is derived from fossil fuels, meaning the work is made from, and a depiction of, past lives in our planet’s history. They are a symbol of human waste, consumption, and pollution.
I want to bridge the barrier of science and art communication so that all audiences can be met, and everyone can be included and informed. Using art to visually depict what is difficult to describe in numbers and words.
My art is a way for me to process overwhelming issues that are often unnoticed, I want to bring to light what people overlook and display it in a way that can be understood.
I am interested in the human condition, the state of the environment and how people are responding. I want art to show the trauma that some experience as result of our changing climate; the uncertainty and anxiety of the younger generation and the very real fear we have for the future. With large installations like The Great Filter down to small works like Plastic Gaze I manipulate form and explore techniques to interest and educate the viewer.
Tori Clearwater, June 2020.