Born in Sydney, Clare grew up traveling between Australia, Canada, Bermuda, and the United States. She completed a BFA at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 2009. After eight years in Dunedin, she now lives in Auckland. Her art practice involves an examination of political and social structures and how they impact on an experience of the everyday. She is specifically interested in how we relate to place and identity with an embodied acknowledgement of power and hierarchy. Her artistic outcomes focus on imagining hopeful futures.
Clare makes mixed media, sculptural installations, often comprised of discreet objects that combine poetically to form a kind of narrative. She also develops collaborative exchange projects that involve audience participation.
In 2010 Clare and Kate van der Drift formed the collboration We Are Optimistic. Under this name they have produced two interactive installation projects, the Patriarchy Free Zone: Imagination Station and the Planning Agency for the Patriarchy Free Zone. The later was exhibitied as part of the Exhibition and Symposium Lets Roar Loudly!. A weekend of conversations around feminism and art organised by We Are Optimistic.