"Harris via Oban Hot Rocks" Installation Footage, SAIC Faculty Sabbatical Triennial 2025 from Claire Helen Ashley on Vimeo.
“Harris via Oban Hot Rocks: Sea Urchin”, Luskentyre, Isle of Harris and Callanais Standing Stones, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, UK.
SAIC Faculty Sabbatical Triennial 2025. On view through December 6, 2025. @saic_galleries saic.edu/facultysabbatical with a Public Reception: Friday, September 5, 5:00–7:00 p.m.. Gallery Hours: Monday–Saturday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Address: SAIC Galleries, 33 E. Washington St. Chicago, IL 60603.
Beyond the classroom, SAIC faculty are internationally exhibiting, genre-defying artists. The Faculty Sabbatical Triennial highlights the groundbreaking work and research they've pursued during sabbaticals and paid leave—offering a rare, behind-the-scenes look at their evolving practices.
Claire says ”The painted inflatable sculptures shown here were built in response to a residency in my native Scotland in April/May 2024. The work focuses on time spent in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, on the Isle of Harris and the Isle of Lewis.
One inflatable Harris via Oban Hot Rock (Sea Urchin) is lathered with a bioplastic paint made from Scottish seaweed gathered in Oban during a visit to SAMS, the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and mixed with other water-based paints and substances such as dirt and sand gathered on Harris. A trace of the process, and the object’s origins, remains in the embellishments of collected dried seaweed fragments draped on its body.
The video captures one day of my inflatable standing sentry over Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris. It is in nature’s elements, being buffeted by intense wind during the day, and basking in the evening sun surrounded by birdsong and seagull squawk.
The second set of inflatables Standing Stone I + II: Calanais (Callanish) were created upon my return, in response to the Calanais Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis. Their surfaces are built from Tyvek, acrylic paint, Azomite rock dust, Gneiss metamorphic rock specimens, Basalt igneous rock specimens, expandable foam, bioplastic, and fake moss.
This work is a response to my thinking around what the future of the planet and the various species on it might look like – how might we all evolve? The “Harris” work holds a somewhat sea urchin form, but it is living on land, breathing air. The “Lewis” work has facial-like features embedded in its form. Are these bodies a possible metamorphosis, an evolutionary self-portrait? And as an artist, how might I use more environmentally friendly materials in my imperfect maximal practice? Can I speak to the complex Anthropocene epoch where plastic and organic matter intertwine?
Immense gratitude to SAMS – the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences – for showing me their incredible seaweed farm and sharing their deep seawater knowledge. And massive thanks to Moira Payne for introducing me to SAMS and for letting me stay in her beautiful cottage on Luskentyre.
Finally, I am including two small, painted, expandable foam and 3D printed sculptures. These are the original models for my augmented reality project nomadic fluoratic phylosian spawn for Augmented Chicago: Inaugural Realities in Millennium Park. This AR work (produced during my sabbatical) and on view through November 2025, proposes a future apparition of evolving organisms. A hallucination in our current landscape, and perhaps a vision of post human existence.”
