ARTIST Clare Thornton uses a range of processes in her work drawing on training in dance, scenography and literature, as well as visual arts and craft disciplines.

In The Dandy & the Mute, her new exhibition at Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen, the desire to reveal, test out and show off appear as central concerns, as are the accompanying (and seemingly opposite) inclinations to veil, conceal and contain.

A restrained flourish, a guarded flamboyance – there are competing tendencies at play.

Through this new exhibition and in earlier works the artist demonstrates an ongoing enjoyment and exploration of a variety of malleable materials. She shares the ways in which they can be worked and transformed to test her interests in concealment and display.

Clare said: “I would describe my work within a conceptual craft frame, exploring the possibilities and limits of materials to support and encourage my conceptual enquiries. I am concerned with object/body/text relations and with the craft object as a physical meeting point and means

of opening up dialogue/enquiry.

“The object has a strong grounding potential and helps tether my thinking and reading (of theory/philosophy) into the everyday. It can become a charged ‘prop’ or means through which to stimulate exchange. I am also interested in the

performative possibilities of craft.

“The themes contained within my work coalesce around materiality, time, memory, folds, layering and tact. I am excited by what I feel to be a productive friction between conceptual, functional, artistic and critical layers of meaning”.

In this site specific installation for Oriel Myrddin Gallery Clare has carefully chosen shapes and shades observed within the building’s architecture and features to inform the design and tonal palette of the overall scene.

The exhibition runs from January 11 to March 1, and the gallery is open Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 5pm.

For more information visit www.orielmyrddingallery.co.uk