Scope of Practice: Clare Benson Artist Lecture

Join us for visiting artist faculty Clare Benson's lecture at Northlight Gallery in downtown Phoenix at Grant Street Studios. Benson will talk about her artistic practice and her project "The Shepherd's Daughter." Her work is part of the group exhibition "Scope of Practice: ASU Photo Faculty." The gallery will be open First Friday, Oct. 7 from 6-9 p.m. and Benson's presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Benson writes about her work: "Deeply rooted in my family history, it is a poetic investigation of memory, tradition, and mythology.

My mother died when she was young. I was a child. It was something my mind could only liken to the death of an animal—those the only other deaths I had known. And so I grew up with my father: an avid hunter, archery champion, and former hunting guide in the Alaskan wilderness. Before my father, my grandmother was a hunter and before that my great-grandmother and long before that the stars made up constellations that told stories of the greatest hunts. In my work, nuances of the northern Michigan landscape of my upbringing are woven with narratives that speak to the fragility and strength of time and nature." 

Across the broader scope of my practice, my creative language is one of metaphors, and my studio work suggests connections between things that may not, on a surface level, seem to be related—microcosms of family histories, ancestral traditions, collections, and rituals; macrocosms of seeable night skies, measurable light, immeasurable darkness, and the ability of time to turn science into myth. Through photography, video, writing and installation, my work explores the complexities of the human condition—what it means for the earth to be the perfect distance from the sun; what it means to be alive and endlessly searching for meaning."