Claire Fergusson’s first performance at Franklin Furnace, 112 Franklin St, NYC
“Morris Louis Paint Performance”, May 22, 1979
Claire is a multi-disciplinary artist creating original works in NYC from the 70's to the present day.
She received her MFA from CUNY Lehman College.
In 1976, Claire presented her Book Sculptures at the opening show for Franklin Furnace and a few years later she gave her first performance.
Her first big concept centered around the looseleaf notebook sheet which produced a silkscreen and sculpture series. Three of these sculpture works are now housed at MOMA.
During these years she began another major concept of “Body-Self” investigation through black and white photography. This was the height of the 2nd wave Woman’s Movement and these works embraced the bravura of that time. It was a woman looking at herself as subject, almost for the first time in art history. The “Body-Self” investigation developed into using her body as a canvas by Painting famous and invented paintings on her body. Then in the “One Tree” series she photographed herself standing behind trees, shrubs, brush thickets and in corn fields and orange groves whereby a merging of her naked self and nature occurred. The painted body series led to her first performance also at Franklin Furnace in 1979. Here standing naked in front of the audience she poured paint on herself. There followed many more performances:
“The artist’s body becomes the subject and object of the action.”
Willoughby Sharp
Claire talking…
“Left and right”