An Artist And An Environmentalist

Clare Celeste’s collages and immersive installations are a clarion call to protect our beautiful but fragile natural world.

- Michele Koh Morollo

Experiencing Clare Celeste's immersive paper installations is like stepping into an enchanted kingdom a liminal space where nature's magic leaves one spellbound. In her work, the Berlin-based American collage artist uses thousands of hand-cut images of plants and animals to raise awareness about our present ecological and biodiversity crises.

"I find nature endlessly inspiring," says Celeste, whose love for nature developed when she encountered the dazzling beauty of the Amazon rainforests as an expat child in Brazil.

Saddened that swathes of Amazonian forests are slowly disappearing, Celeste, who uses naturalist imagery from circa 1900 for her collage and installations, says, "I have become aware that many species in my artwork have already vanished or are vanishing. This adds a ecological urgency to what I do.

"To address this aspect of my practice, I have an ongoing collaboration and creative dialogue with scientist Louisa Durkin of the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre. As an artist drawing inspiration from the natural world, it has become impossible for me to ignore the current ecological crisis," she says.

Born in Thailand to an American diplomat father and textile artist mother, Celeste has lived in seven countries and 10 different cities, and sees her life as a sort of collage made up of visual impressions especially impressions of nature - that she remembers from different parts of the world.

"I have assimilating to different cultures and environments my entire life, having lived in Brazil, the US, Italy, Honduras, Argentina, and Germany. Collage allows me to pull together naturalist imagery from across the globe and create a cohesive visual story. Much like my memories and how they form my sense of self,” she says.