Claire DeJong

"Beach Ball Girl" 45 by 60 inches, giclee print on hanhemuhle rag 2008 Claire DeJong Is a South African artist who lives and works in the East End of London. Her most recent projects involve painting on photographic material, sculpture and installation She has had a solo exhibition at Five Years London in 2007 and exhibited with Carter Presents in "Fastest with The Mostest" 2007, London, art Fairs include, Scope London 2006, Scope Miami 2006, Scope New York 2007. In May 1999 Victoria Mapplebeck began recording the marriage breakdown of her two artist friends, Claire de Jong and her husband Brendan Quick. For one year she filmed Claire, Brendan and his new girlfriend Lisa Jensen. They filmed each other and web-cams filmed it all, streaming 24 hours a day 7 days a week to the Smart Hearts web site. The intensity and intimacy of filming created a challenging take on the complexity of modern relationships, and in Britain's first live web documentary, viewers were able to chat live with the documentary subjects and crew. This continual on-line interaction continued throughout the series. Smart Hearts was the forerunner of many of the reality TV shows such as Wife Swap which fill our screens.