ARTIST BIO
Claire Brunet is a sculptor and Associate Professor in the Sculpture/Installation program at OCAD University. She also supervises students in the Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design (IAMD) and Digital Futures (DF) graduate programs. Brunet holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Special Individualized Program (SIP) at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research explores expanded spatial boundaries and the influence of a 3D digital and technological context on the artist’s creative process in sculpture practice. Brunet’s sculpture projects propose temporal forces that highlight the opposing values at work in hypermodern society—a 3D digital and technological spatial approach as a mode of production, and a critical discourse on living species and their relationship to their environment.
Brunet has presented projects and papers at conferences in New Zealand, Australia, Paris, Belgium, Germany, Greece, and Canada. Her publications include: “Paradox in Sculpture: Hypermodernity, Nature and Digital Medium,” in S. Davis (ed.), Balance-Unbalance International Conference 2013, (Noosa, Australia); “Exploring Data Space,” in The Faculty of Art Newsletter (OCAD U, Toronto, 2012); “Extending Spatial Boundaries Through Sculpture Practices: Exploring Natural and 3D Technological Environments” in The International Journal of the Arts in Society (Illinois: CG Publishing, 2012); “McLuhan and Extended Environment: Affect and Effect of a 3D Digital Medium on Sculpture Practice,” in Y. Van Den Eede, J. Bauwens, J. Beyl, M. Van den Bossche, and K. Verstrynge (eds.), Proceedings of ‘McLuhan’s Philosophy of Media’ – Centennial Conference, October 2011 (Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts).
As an artist-sculptor and researcher, Claire Brunet’s ongoing interest in pushing the boundaries of artistic expression has led her to explore new spatial-temporal dimensions. Her research aims to extend traditional artist-medium boundaries in sculpture and study how transitioning from an analogue to a 3D digital and technological context affects artists’ interaction with the environment and their relation to objects in space. Her current research explores analogue and digital interactions through a conceptual investigation of themes such as identity and representation, the environment and global warming. Brunet examines and extrapolates; inspired by forms and subjects of the surroundings she expresses and explores a knowledge of the unknown. Her research investigates technological advancements that shape the interaction of sculptural objects within an enhanced understanding of spatial platforms, from real to virtual reality. This exploration of new spatial directions facilitates a phenomenological approach to forming the viewer’s experience through physical or interactive and immersive environments.
Among her artistic realizations are the following projects: Sculptural Allegory (2024-25), Capturing Ephemerality: SnowTree/ArbreNeige and Glacial_Glacier (2021-2023), Embodied Identity (2019-2020), Trans: du Réel au Virtuel (2017-2018), What Water do you come from? (2015-2023), Convergence (2015), The Salmon Project (2007-2014), and Nature Art (2000-2004). In addition to these, she has completed many other projects, including eighteen Public Art Commissions (1998-2006).