Claire Halpin explores themes and concepts around contested territories and histories through painting. Created over the last two years, these paintings respond to different sites of conflict and protest – from the Pandemic, storming of the Capitol, refugee crisis, to the current war in Ukraine. The spectacle and theatrics of conflict and protest documented and recorded through paint. The covert machinations of the perpetual war that is arms deals, mercenaries, remote surveillance programmes and drone warfare away from the lens of the media.

The works attempt to navigate the complexity of the contemporary theatre of war and cultural wars as battlefield moves to the battlespace of the online and live feed of news, images media. A steady stream of content, real, fake and created by whom for whom.

 

The themes in the work concern the perception and interpretation of images. - how the reading of images and their resonance is influenced by how they are created, depicted and the context in which they are viewed. I strive to create paintings that raise questions about how we choose to record history and the veracity of painting, photography, and the media in documenting future history.

 

Artist's Bio

 

Claire Halpin is a Dublin born and based visual artist, curator and arts educator.

Her work explores themes and concepts around contested territories and histories through paintings responding to different sites of conflict and protest. Using imagery from the media, surveillance, military history, maps, archaeology, early civilization, and the canon of art history, she weaves together a narrative through painting.

 

Claire Halpin

Instagram: @clairehalpinartist

Blog: https://clairehalpin2011.wordpress.com/

Email: clairo.halpin@gmail.com