Lucy Claire

My practice is inspired by museum collections, primarily my fascination with classical sculpture. I explore this through photography, printmaking, and engraving. As an artist, I am concerned with how natural elements can be used to produce an artificial image of perfection.

My personal experience informs my interest in the artificial image, specifically the pressure of expectation on appearance and behaviour. Therefore, my work can be linked to the investigation of self, authenticity, and perception. I communicate this affinity by using everyday materials. I use readymade objects such as bricks and handmade tiles to give my photographs a physical aspect linked to lived experience.

My work concerns staged perfection, idealised beauty, unattainable standards, and the associated tyranny of classical ideals. I challenge accepted ideals by subjecting my images to unpredictable processes and presenting the resulting portraits on readymade bricks and handmade tiles. Both bricks and tiles speak of uniformity, manufacture, and mass production. The distorted portraits are juxtaposed with the perfect surface to question the commodification of beauty. Modern-day internet algorithms, filters, and the widespread use of facial aesthetics threaten to turn humans into manufactured clones as we strive to reach the beauty goals originally set in antiquity. Perceived beauty standards have never been more tyrannical.