Golden Thread Gallery is delighted to present new work by internationally acclaimed artist Claire Morgan, which has been specially commissioned with support of an Arts Council of Northern Ireland Commissioning Grant 2024. Presented as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival 2024.

Morgan’s work seeks to raise fundamental questions about the role of humans and their relationship to nature. Her intricate pieces use taxidermy, waste materials, dead animals, sculptural wax figures and human hair to create something totally unique.

“The work explores real and imagined relationships between individuals and between species, at a time when devastating environmental and humanitarian emergencies are manipulated for political goals. It comes from the need to foster kinship, but this can be no fairy tale. Whether we think about grief, loss, personal or collective trauma, or the climate catastrophe, we can never just start from scratch. Glossing over problems doesn’t work, because the truth always bubbles to the surface. We must find ways to exist and find beauty despite our circumstances, not by denying their existence.” 

Morgan is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sculpture, drawing, writing, printmaking and installation. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in 2024. She was awarded a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant in 2022, and the 12th Fondation Guerlain Drawing Prize in 2019. Works are in collections worldwide including Centre Georges Pompidou, Fondation Guerlain, and MONA.

Accessibility:The Lower Gallery is accessed via the ground floor, which is step-free. The Upper Gallery is accessed via lift from the ground floor or via the main staircase.

This exhibition includes taxidermy and representations of naked bodies.

Large print versions of exhibition texts are available.

@clairemorganstudio #galeriekarstengreve @belfast_int_arts_fest