Dr Clare Britton
Lecturer
Doctor of Philosophy (Sculpture) Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney (2020).
Master of Studio Art (Sculpture) Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney (2015).
Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of the Arts and Media
Living on Bidjigal Land in Sydney, Australia, Clare Britton is an artist interested in how artworks, people and landscapes hold stories. Informed by her work in live performance, Clare’s visual art practice includes installation, site-specific art and writing and considers the way water moves and changes. Clare lectures and researches at the Esme Timbrey Creative Practice Lab. Clare's PhD research project, A Week on the Cooks River, was completed under the supervision of Julie Rrap, Mikala Dwyer and Ann Elias at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney in 2020.
Clare's practice-led research considers creative process, collaborative practice, applied performance, site-based art, cross-disciplinary art, production design, walking, and rivers. Clare's research interests have evolved from her work creating original projects with writers, performers, sound artists, choreographers, and video artists since 2000.
Clare's work has attracted awards for sculpture, performance design, and research and toured Australia and internationally.
Clare facilitates the Magnetic Topographies research group and Magnetic Press with artists Therese Keogh and Kenzee Patterson, and her time as part of the performance collective My Darling Patricia (2004-14) informs her process.
A Sidney Myer Creative Fellow (2014), Clare holds a Masters of Studio Art (2016) and a Doctor of Philosophy (2020) from Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney, where she also lectured in Visual and Contemporary Art.
E-mail
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
AWARDS (selected)
INDIVIDUAL
Carriageworks Clothing Studio Artist in residence 2023
Finalist 20th Anniversary Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, 2020
Cooks River Small Sculpture Prize (Greenway Art Prize), 2019
Sydney University Doctoral Research Travel Grant Scheme Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, 2018 Sydney University Postgraduate Award, 2017
Finalist Sydney University Edmund Barton Medal, 2016
Sidney Myer Creative Fellow 2014
COLLABORATIVE
Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship Finalist (Magnetic Topographies) 2024
Honorary mention, Prix Ars Electronica, digital music and sound art (Polar Force) 2019
Helpmann Award: Best Visual Or Physical Theatre Production (Whelping Box) 2014.
Green Room Award: Outstanding Contemporary Performance (Whelping Box) 2013.
Green Room Award: Best Production Design Hybrid Work. (Hole in the Wall) 2010
Malthouse Theatre Company in residence and commission My Darling Patricia, 2009
Green Room Award for Production Design for a Hybrid Work (Night Garden) 2009
Adelaide Fringe Festival: Best Production (Politely Savage) 2007
Sydney Theatre Award: Best Independent Production (Politely Savage) 2006
Essays, Chapters, Publications
Walking Wolli Creek Sydney Review of Books co-written with Alexandra Crosby, Associate Professor and Associate Head of School, School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney (2022).
Flows. Bodies of Water- A Reader. Edited by Filipa Ramos. Contributions by Clare Britton, Mel Y. Chen, Fan Xiao, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Han Song, Huo Xiangjie, Andrés Jaque, Yuan-Chih Lung, Astrida Neimanis, Marina Otero Verzier, Luciana Parisi, Lucia Pietroiusti, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Filipa Ramos, Wang Hongzhe, Wang Wei, Mark Wigley, You Mi. Published with Power Station of Art, Shanghai, and Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. Bilingual edition (English / Mandarin) published in September 2021.
Hacking the Anthropocene: Feminist, Queer, Anticolonial Propositions. (Chapter) Ed. J.M. Hamilton, S. Reid, P. van Gelder and A. Neimanis. Open Humanities Press is a scholar-led, not-for-profit Community Interest Company incorporated in London. (2021)
Non-Traditional Research Output (selected exhibitions and performances)
2018-23 Co-Director experimental sound work Polar Force. In Polar Force, pristine Antarctic field recordings by Dr Phillip Smartzis are augmented by hand-made instruments that use ice and high-pressure air composed by Eugene Ughetti. Performed at Victorian Arts Centre Melbourne, PICA, Perth; Noorderzon Festival, Groningen, Netherlands; Ruhrtriennale, Essen, Germany; the Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria and Transart Festival, Bolzano, Italy. Sydney Festival, Carriageworks, Sydney.
2021 A River Ends as the Ocean, Astrida Neimanis, Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor and Clare Britton A durational public walk 7 hours in Sydney; variable hours in Shanghai. Bodies of Water, 13th Shanghai Biennale of Art, An Eco-system of Alliances. Sydney and Shanghai 2021. (visual artist)
2021 A River Ends as the Ocean, Astrida Neimanis, Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor and Clare Britton. Exhibition Shanghai. Bodies of Water, 13th Shanghai Biennale of Art, An Exhibition, Shanghai 2021.
2021 A Week on the River Clare Britton, exhibition Bankstown Arts Centre, September 2021. Curated by Vandana Ram
2019 A River on the Other Side of the World (walk along the Vltava River) Australian Exhibit, Prague Quadrennial of Performance and Space Design and A River on the Other Side of the World (walk along the Cooks River) with the Composting Feminisms Reading Group. The New South Wales Government supported our work through Create NSW. The project also attracted funding from the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, administered by the Australian Embassy in Beijing and the Australian Consulate-General in Shanghai.
2018-2022 The Nightline. Roslyn Oades, Bob Scott and collaborators (production design) Urban Theatre Projects, Right Here Right Now festival 2018, the Rising Festival, Melbourne 2021, Sydney Festival 2022, Adelaide Festival 2022
A Faint Existence 2016, Mountain 2018 and Brightness (in development) Choreographer Kristina Chan. Performance Space's Liveworks Festival, Carriageworks 2016, Sydney Opera House, Unwrapped Festival, 2018. Campbelltown Arts Centre 2018, Dance Massive 2019, The development of A Faint Existence was supported by Carriageworks, Bundanon Artists Trust and Arts House.
My Research Supervision
Ira Ferris co-supervisor with Dr Rochelle Haley
Chris Sharp co-supervisor with Dr Jennifer Hamilton and Dr Ariella Van Luyn, UNE
My Teaching
Teaching focus: Practice Led Research:
Experiments in Media and Performance ARTS 3125; Writing for Performance ARTS 2120 ; Collaborative Making ARTS 3124 ; Performance Production ARTS 2122 (co-ordination)