Claire Parker – portfolio

Contact the artist

https://www.claireparkerart.co.uk/about-me/

claireparkerbkp[at]gmail.com

Exhibition information

I think there is room for humour in art.

While studying French at university I learnt about the seventeenth-century hierarchy of genres in painting: allegorical, historical or religious subjects were at the top of the pack, landscapes were in the middle, and still lifes were firmly at the bottom. Here, I’ve reshuffled that deck, turning that hierarchy on its head and releasing the humble toothbrush from the bathroom into the pantheon of great works of art.

For example, the biblical figures in Gentileschi’s Judith Beheading Holofernes have been replaced by toothbrushes de-capping a toothpaste tube with dental floss. In Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time, muses are replaced by tubes, while a character in the corner holds an hourglass I like to imagine as a two-minute tooth-brushing timer.  

This is an ongoing series, and more famous paintings translated into toothbrush dramas can be found on Instagram @funny_little_marks 

Artist information

I am interested in the meeting point between portraiture and still life; everyday objects often become anthropomorphised in my work. I work in part as a translator, and see drawing and painting through the lens of translation. Most recently, I have become interested in drawn animation and moving image work.