The Objects are Watching, Art Seen, Cyprus.
Clare Burnett, a British artist based in London and Berlin, returns to Cyprus to continue exploring themes from her exhibition Shapeshifters, Travellers of Conscience. This show at Art Seen Projects, Nicosia in 2023, was inspired by the artefacts removed from Cyprus by Cesnola in the 19th century and was made from objects and materials found on the streets of Nicosia.
Her new project will focus on the movement of objects across borders, and how their meaning and value shifts over time. The work is inspired by the Cypriot terracottas taken from the island and the rich tapestry woven by their journeys through Europe.
Using natural and manmade materials collected in Cyprus, the exhibition will explore the layered histories of everyday objects, drawing connections between historic patterns of acquisition and today’s consumer culture. Like the household terracottas of the past, today’s everyday plastics of bear witness, watching over our actions and lives until they too become the archeology of the future.
The journeys of these ancient and contemporary objects mirror the movement of people and touch on the 21st century politics of division. The flags that fly are an antidote, a friendly welcome and a neutral space, their colours and forms drawn from bowls, jugs and vases researched for the exhibition.
