Nuala Creed (born in 1954 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

) is a ceramic sculptor living in

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

, United States. She is known for a series of over 120 Ceramic Archivists, on display as a permanent collection at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. She is also known for her political work.

Biography

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Creed lived in London as a young adult, and then moved to Boston in 1979 where she took courses at

Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the only publicly funded independent art school ...

. In 1996 she moved to San Francisco with her husband,

Jeffrey Ventrella Jeffrey Ventrella is a digital artist, programmer, and researcher. Ventrella was principal inventor and, with Will Harvey, co-founder of the virtual world '' There''. Career Ventrella co-founded the virtual world product There.com in 1998. Ventrel ...

, where she earned her BFA at

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

, graduating with high distinction. Creed has worked primarily with the human figure, incorporating themes of childhood, vulnerability, and social issues.

Political work

After being invited to make an ornament (a ceramic hummingbird) for the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

Christmas tree in 2002, Creed began making variations of this work in protest of the

2003 Invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. This led to a series called "Babes in Arms". Creed's political work has been published in several art books and shown in galleries in Europe and the United States.

Ceramic Archivists

Inspired by the

Terra Cotta Warriors The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the emperor in ...

in China,

founder

Brewster Kahle Brewster Lurton Kahle ( ; born October 21, 1960)Alexa Internet profile
, via juggle.com. accessed Novemb ...

invited Creed to begin making figures of employees who have worked at the Archive for three or more years. This series began in 2010, and is currently ongoing. Prominent figures such as

Ted Nelson Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer of information technology, philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the terms ''hypertext'' and ''hypermedia'' in 1963 and published them in 1965. Nelson coined the terms ''transcl ...

, Brewster Kahle and

Aaron Swartz Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. A prolific programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS, the tech ...

are included in this collection.''Steve Jobs, Wikipédia, Snowden : des statues en hommage à Internet'', L'OBS avec Rue 89, by Claire Richard, 2014 Thirty-two of these figures were exhibited at "From Clay to Cloud", at Loyola Marymount University's Laband Art Gallery in Los Angeles in 2016. IMG_4889_-_Flickr_-_Jason_%22Textfiles%22_Scott.jpg, Internet archivists by Nuala Creed Ceramic archivists 4879 - Jason Scott.jpg,

Brewster Kahle Brewster Lurton Kahle ( ; born October 21, 1960)Alexa Internet profile
, via juggle.com. accessed Novemb ...

IA Light Painting Ceramic 3.jpg,

Ceramic archivists 4908 - Jason Scott.jpg, June Goldsmith Ceramic archivists 4859 - Jason Scott.jpg, Peter Brantley

References

External links

Nuala Creed's home page

A page about the Ceramic Archivists

Clay Sculptures of Archivists Show the Human Face of Big Data

Into the Labyrinth

Steve Jobs, Wikipédia, Snowden : des statues en hommage à Internet

Biography

Political work

Ceramic Archivists

References

External links

Further reading