| Clunie Reid uses photographs, drawings, media images, and text to create aggressive and unrefined collages. Through the use of cheap materials and a rudimentary approach to display, Reid works against formality and the ideologies suggested by images of wealth and beauty dispersed within the work. Utilizing a deskilled aesthetic and emphasizing the act of composition rather than the final product, the artist reveals and dismantles these ideals as well as her own response. The aggression visible in the process behind the work, from marker pen scribbles to the irregularity of the cuttings, sits alongside ironic and often humorous slogans. Reid’s methods enable a mode of performance: the quickness of execution reflects the swiftness of thought, as well as its potential for change. Any mistakes are left in place. |
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Rahila Haque
Adapted from Clunie Reid by Melissa Gronlund
Clunie Reid, She Gets Even Happier (detail), 2008. Mixed Media, dimensions variable. Installation at ICA 2008. Photo credit: Stephen White. Courtesy of MOT international.
Clunie Reid uses photographs, drawings, media images, and text to create aggressive and unrefined collages. Through the use of cheap materials and a rudimentary approach to display, Reid works against formality and the ideologies suggested by images of wealth and beauty dispersed within the work. Utilizing a deskilled aesthetic and emphasizing the act of composition rather than the final product, the artist reveals and dismantles these ideals as well as her own response. The aggression visible in the process behind the work, from marker pen scribbles to the irregularity of the cuttings, sits alongside ironic and often humorous slogans.
Reid’s methods enable a mode of performance: the quickness of execution reflects the swiftness of thought, as well as its potential for change. Any mistakes are left in place. If impermanence is one of the qualities of the fashion and celebrity economy, Reid performs this flux in her foam board collages, sites where information is gathered, exchanged, and updated. The strength of Reid’s works is not manifested in any single piece, but in the multifarious accumulation of meaning, quickly tacked to the gallery wall.
