Claire Barclay

Description

A 'mock up' is usually a full-sized scale model of a structure, or a layout of printed material. As with most of Barclay's works, the meaning of Mock Up lies not in the subject, but in the material. Barclay exploits materials for a range of references, and uses the process of sculpture to investigate how meaning comes through form.

Mock Up leads the viewer on an associative journey triggered by memory and imagination. One is unable to attribute meaning through function, for the work does not appear to have one. Rather, one must find a way to consolidate its seemingly disparate elements, to develop meaning, for both the individual elements and the work as a sum of its parts.

Mock Up is constructed of brass, painted wood, screen-printed fabric, and glass with mirroring paint - materials which have a relationship with domesticity. They further recall a tradition of craft, something which is omnipresent in Barclay's work, often for its references to nostalgia, that does not, however, force a sense of longing.

As implied by its definition, Mock Up is constructed on a human-scale, a relationship Barclay employs to allude to the body, which is not directly represented, but rather implied, thereby allowing for further suggestive references to be drawn.

Mock Up's ambiguity is constructed to allow for numerous references to filter in and out of the work. It allows the viewer to realise that our relationships to the physical world are not simply with objects and their end use, but are also with the materials used to construct them, particularly their sensory nature, and the memories and more instinctual responses they elicit.