Clare Conway is an artist and maker from Philadelphia currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Conway manipulates porcelain paper clay to imitate real paper and documents of personal significance concerning her relationships, censoring and redacting the information. This discretion is partly due to the anxiety of potential assessment on her personal life and partly a revolt against the increasingly blurred line between public and private information in our current society due to social media platforms.
Conway provides fragments of intact information and by censoring the rest she playfully arouses curiosity and forces the viewer to question what the destroyed information once conveyed. This engages her audience by allowing them to introduce their own narrative.
Her use of porcelain is poetic and deliberate; paper has little value and will eventually decompose. By using porcelain to record her relationships she is creating precious, lasting documents that emphasise the value of her interactions.
Much of Conway's work has the dualistic qualities of fragility and strength. Her pieces are venerable but balanced; all characteristics intrinsic in human relationships.
Her work is a celebration of relationships and reticence.