Clare Dudeney

The Dot Project is pleased to present Shapes of Being, the first solo presentation of London-based artist Clare Dudeney.

Shapes of Being will feature abstract fabric collages, alongside a selection of chine collé monotype paintings, that the artist has developed since obtaining a Distinction in her MA at City & Guilds earlier this year.

Working from the subconscious and visual memories, Dudeney embraces the everyday encounter with a blank sheet of paper and fabric. She allows the compositions to emerge from spontaneous action, breaking the sheet apart, painting each piece and reconstructing, like intricate puzzles. During this engagement, the artist focuses on the unexpected and semi-random, seeking to express multiple states of being.

Through ripping and cutting of fabric and paper, Dudeney forms boundaries between interlocking shapes and colour fields across a flat plane, directing emphasis on the way the pieces meet and touch. By juxtaposing complex tertiary colours with full chroma (brightness), she examines the relativity of colours and how they can transform each another; with harmony and discord.

Drawing from Roland Barthes’ ‘A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments’, in which the author discusses a child dismantling a clock to find out the time, Dudeney relates this to her practice; attempting to understand something by taking it apart, looking at all the pieces, arranging them and then putting it all back together. Finding that the thing is transformed by the process.

Through her practice, Dudeney aims to express a fragmented experience of being through the interaction of shapes and colours. The fabric and paper collages reflect connections that humans form with one another, highlighting the self as a network of relationships in a state of flux. The artist explores what it feels like to live in and through a mind and body, with streaming thoughts that we seek to cohere to form a sense of self.

Clare Dudeney (b. 1981) lives and works in London. She received her M.A. in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School (2018) and undertook classes with the Royal Drawing School. Clare changed career to be an artist in 2014, after an inspirational trip to Antarctica, where she has since returned as artist-in- residence on a tourist ship. She has worked in climate change and energy policy for most of her professional career. Currently working on a freelance basis with an environmental think tank Sustainability First, developing a project to combine her interests in art and sustainability.