Louise Clarke

Bio

Louise is an interdisciplinary artist based in County Waterford. She holds a BA First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design (2026). She has been fortunate to receive support and recognition through awards such as Backwater Ciarán Langford Memorial Bursary, Sample Studios Graduate Associate Membership, and Cork Textiles Network Membership. Louise is longlisted for RDS and has shown in MTU Graduate Show, Second Hand Smoke, with inclusion in forthcoming group exhibitions, Cork Craft and Design Emerge 2026, MTU Ar Scáth A Chéíle/ In Each Other’s Shadow February 2027, and GOMA, Waterford. Her work was awarded purchase prizes by OPW and MTU Art Collection, and private collections.

Artist Statement

I am a mixed media artist, working primarily in the mediums of sculpture and performance. This process-based practice positions the journey as an integral part of the finished piece. My practice considers the historical and contemporary lived experience of women as both disregarded and commodified objects. Influenced by her thesis, entitled The Burden of Blackness: The Representation of Black Women in 17th century European Painting. My practice continues this line of inquiry to explore the experience of women’s bodies as both seen and unseen objects onto which value has been historically been placed upon. My medium of raw, unwashed, sheep’s fleece, still contains all the minerals needed to protect the ewe. Their fleece has little commercial value, their meat and lambs give them status. I draw the comparison with the Black women portrayed in 17th century European painting of Colonial times of slavery when her progeny may have been sired by her owner. The sheep we trust lives blissfully unaware. The women I fear would not have had that luxury. There as a prop to raise the status of their white owner. Unnamed, anonymous, often situated in the shadows of the painting. Their black skin enhancing the whiteness and purity of the focus of the work.