Claire Hooper
Some honoured me by giving me
the secrets of their works
10.12.2024 – 31.03.2025
Claire Hooper’s recent body of work is informed by mythology and sociology. For this series of watercolours, her starting point was researching ancient mythologies and stories of metamorphosis, not only from Greece and Rome, but from around the world. These stories are predominantly about transformations between people and animals, plants or features of the landscape, and come from cultures which are fundamentally animistic, whether they are contemporary or historical. Hooper’s works negotiate the interchange between internal and external terrains; she navigates ancient sites, cultures and narratives, tracing their resonance with contemporary experience and feminist discourse.
There is a wealth of folkloric characters which reflect an equity between humanity and nature. This equity may be in the form of reflected emotion or experience (e.g. many Greek myths), as a boundary of power and authority (nature guardians) or as an alternative appreciation of the limits of self.
These watercolours form a Deutsche Bank commission at 21 Moorfields that was unveiled in October 2024, becoming large-scale wallpapers that adorn three floors of the building.
1–3. Installation views of Claire Hooper’s commission at 21 Moorfields, Deutsche Bank. Photo: Eva Herzog. Courtesy of the artist and Deutsche Bank, UK. | 4–5. Studies and drawings of Deutsche Bank commission.
In Japanese mythology, Kitsune are shapeshifting fox spirits that are a type of Yōkai – supernatural creatures with paranormal abilities. A symbol of prosperity and good luck, it is often associated with rice paddies.
Claire Hooper (b. 1978, UK) lives and works in Marseille, France. Informed by mythology and sociology, Hooper’s practice comprises painting, textile, moving image, installation and writing. Negotiating the interchange between internal and external terrains, Hooper’s work navigates ancient sites, cultures and narratives, tracing their resonance with contemporary experience and feminist discourse. Hooper’s recent mural paintings elaborate her interest in painting-as-installation and the phenomenology of narrative and language — both its construction and affect.
Hooper is a recipient of the 2023 Deutsche Bank Art & Culture Commission, for which she has created a new site-specific mural and joined the Deutsche Bank Collection. Recent solo exhibitions include Hekate, Hollybush Gardens, London (2021); Claire Hooper, The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art; She Knocked Aggressively at The Door, She Shouted Aggressively at the Gate, ANDOR Gallery, London; Clay as Bread and Dust as Wine, Hollybush Gardens, London (all 2016); Fig 2, no. 7, ICA studio, London (2015), in collaboration with Maria Loboda; Ziggurat, Edel Assanti, London (2015); Claire Hooper, Bonner Kunstverein, Germany (2014); and Claire Hooper, Vanity Projects, New York (2013).
