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Artist information:
Claire Watkins
Brooklyn, NY
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Claire Watkins is showing at:
The Old Federal Building The Old Federal Building
155 N Division Ave
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
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Claire Watkins
Artist bio: Claire Watkins earned her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1996. She received her M.F.A. in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004. Since then, Watkins has been featured in numerous exhibitions nation wide, including Cynthia Reeves Gallery, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Kim Foster Gallery, 3rd Ward and Smack Mellon (all in New York) as well as the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, in Grand Rapids, MI, the Albuquerque Contemporary Art Center, University of Arkansas and the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA. Watkins has exhibited her work internationally in London at the Steps Gallery and Keith Tyson Gallery and in Japan at the 2005 World Expo
Watkins was the 2008 recipient of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial Fellowship. She was also a recipient of the Lower East Side Artist Alliance Rotating Studio Program and the Sculpture Space Residency Program.

Claire Watkins lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Artist statement: The digestive system turns food into eyelashes. I am in awe of the minutiae and delicate actions that make up everyday life. The machines I build reflect this awe and wonder. My work is intimate, curious and mesmerizing in its gestures. The translation of energy is both a functional and conceptual part of my work. With movement, I make machines that become creatures.

I am fascinated by systems found within the body and the parallel structures located outside of it; the human brain and circuit boards, the nervous systems and trees. The affects of electricity are curious. Neurons fire in your head with the memories of your life. Your toast gets burned. Electricity has a visual presence in my work, traveling through motors, lights, wires, microcontrollers and drawings that are circuit boards. I want to expose the invisibility of electricity, a physical reminder of its presence.
About the work:
Title: Thinking Three Thoughts at Once

Art form: 3-D

Medium: motors, LED’s, magnets, metal, tool dip

Year created: 2009

Description of work: The electricity travels through the wires on the wall to the branch forms that hold the LED’s. The rotating magnet makes the LED’s move up and down because the steel in the LED’s are affected by the force of the magnet. The movement of the LED lights makes them flicker on and off. The LED’s cast blue light on the wall.

Work statement: This piece is constructed in the actual space. It is a sculptural drawing that is an actual circuit that the electricity travels through. The pieces is a reminder of the electrical grid that is in itself a drawing that travels throughout the buildings architecture and city. This is also reflected in what happens inside the body's nervous system. Memory, thoughts, feelings are electro-chemical reactions in the body. Electricity and circuitry are often viewed as technological and unnatural but in reality they exist with us. The work should be a reminder of this and an opportunity to view electricity as poetic and human.

Technical details:
Work width: n/a
Work height: n/a
Work depth: n/a
Required venue ceiling: n/a
Required venue door height: n/a
Required venue door width: n/a
Required wall linear footage: 10 ft.
Required venue square footage: n/a
Additional considerations:
Audio/video needed: No
Electrical needed: Yes
Lighting needed: Yes
Internet access needed: No
Ground floor access needed: No
Indoor space needed: Yes
Outdoor space needed: No

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