Helen Chadwick
Encyclopedia
Helen Chadwick was a British
conceptual artist
.
and then at the Chelsea School of Art.
She lived in Beck Road, Bethnal Green
, where one of her first London friends was another resident of the street, Maureen Paley
. Paley and other friends took part in Chadwick's first London show, a feminist performance titled In the Kitchen, by strapping themselves in a canvas model of a cooker. Chadwick guided Paley in the conversion of her home into a space for art exhibitions. Paley said, "Helen was always talking about craftsmanship—a constant fount of information".
She has often been identified as a feminist
, with several of her works addressing the role and image of woman
in society
.
Her work often reflected her sometimes uneasy relationship with her own body, using organic materials, such as meat
, flower
s and chocolate
. She is perhaps most famous for Piss Flowers (1991–92), bronze
sculpture
s cast from cavities made when urinating
in the snow
by both Helen Chadwick and her husband David Notarius.
Earlier works include Viral Landscapes, a series of photograph
s from the late 1980s where blotches (actually magnified images of cell
s from her body) are superimposed over landscape
s, and Meat Abstracts (1989) large photographs of meat juxtaposed with leather
and fabric
.
To look at her work in the context of art history it is interesting to see the differences between her approach to her own body and the way the female figure was used in the past.
"In Ego Geometria Sum: The laborers X" of 1984, she is not attempting to use her body in a decorative or seductive way, attempting to lift a large box covered with a picture of her own body, she is literally struggling under the weight of her own image, which was something perhaps doubly applicable to her as both a woman and an artist in the public eye.
While in her earlier work she questioned the role of the female body in art as a decorative object, just as decorative and aesthetic ideas about art themselves had been questioned in the 20th century, in the late 80s she changed saying, "I made a conscience decision in 1988 not to represent my body. It immediately declares female gender and I wanted to be more deft."
Chadwick thereby abandoned this practice to become more visceral and moved inside the body to human flesh, and what is common to all of us but we avoid thinking about. However, she did not abandon the themes of sexual identity and gender identity. Her Cibachrome transparencies of 1990 entitled "Eroticism" depict two brains side by side.
In 1995, Chadwick took up an artist residency in the assisted conception unit at Kings College Hospital, London, photographing IVF embryos rejected for implantation . She used the photos in Unnatural Selection, a series on which she was working when she died.
Ten of her works, including Cyclops Cameo and Opal, were destroyed in the May 2004 fire at the Momart
warehouse
in London
.
Chadwick was nominated for the Turner Prize
in 1987.
She died in 1996 from a viral infection that weakens heart muscle preventing it from pumping. The virus was contracted while working in a hospital .
Works
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
conceptual artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
.
Life and work
Chadwick studied at Croydon College of Art, The Faculty of Arts and Architecture Brighton PolytechnicUniversity of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...
and then at the Chelsea School of Art.
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...
, where one of her first London friends was another resident of the street, Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in Bethnal Green, London, where she lives. It was founded in 1984, called Interim Art during the 1990s, and renamed Maureen Paley in 2004. She exhibited Young British Artists at an early stage...
. Paley and other friends took part in Chadwick's first London show, a feminist performance titled In the Kitchen, by strapping themselves in a canvas model of a cooker. Chadwick guided Paley in the conversion of her home into a space for art exhibitions. Paley said, "Helen was always talking about craftsmanship—a constant fount of information".
She has often been identified as a feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, with several of her works addressing the role and image of woman
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
in society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
.
Her work often reflected her sometimes uneasy relationship with her own body, using organic materials, such as meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
, flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s and chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
. She is perhaps most famous for Piss Flowers (1991–92), bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s cast from cavities made when urinating
Urination
Urination, also known as micturition, voiding, peeing, weeing, pissing, and more rarely, emiction, is the ejection of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. In healthy humans the process of urination is under voluntary control...
in the snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
by both Helen Chadwick and her husband David Notarius.
Earlier works include Viral Landscapes, a series of photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s from the late 1980s where blotches (actually magnified images of cell
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
s from her body) are superimposed over landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
s, and Meat Abstracts (1989) large photographs of meat juxtaposed with leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
and fabric
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
.
Right from early art school, I wanted to use the body to create a sense of inner relationships with the audience.
To look at her work in the context of art history it is interesting to see the differences between her approach to her own body and the way the female figure was used in the past.
"In Ego Geometria Sum: The laborers X" of 1984, she is not attempting to use her body in a decorative or seductive way, attempting to lift a large box covered with a picture of her own body, she is literally struggling under the weight of her own image, which was something perhaps doubly applicable to her as both a woman and an artist in the public eye.
While in her earlier work she questioned the role of the female body in art as a decorative object, just as decorative and aesthetic ideas about art themselves had been questioned in the 20th century, in the late 80s she changed saying, "I made a conscience decision in 1988 not to represent my body. It immediately declares female gender and I wanted to be more deft."
Chadwick thereby abandoned this practice to become more visceral and moved inside the body to human flesh, and what is common to all of us but we avoid thinking about. However, she did not abandon the themes of sexual identity and gender identity. Her Cibachrome transparencies of 1990 entitled "Eroticism" depict two brains side by side.
In 1995, Chadwick took up an artist residency in the assisted conception unit at Kings College Hospital, London, photographing IVF embryos rejected for implantation . She used the photos in Unnatural Selection, a series on which she was working when she died.
Ten of her works, including Cyclops Cameo and Opal, were destroyed in the May 2004 fire at the Momart
Momart
Momart is a British company specialising in the storage, transportation, and installation of works of art. It has been owned by Falkland Islands Holdings since 5 March 2008....
warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Chadwick was nominated for the Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
in 1987.
She died in 1996 from a viral infection that weakens heart muscle preventing it from pumping. The virus was contracted while working in a hospital .
External links
- An audio interview with Chadwick from the BBC
- Helen Chadwick (BBC)
- The Guardian on Chadwick's self-portrait Vanitas II, Helen Chadwick (1986)
- Photograph of Helen Chadwick at Ikon GalleryIkon GalleryThe Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.Ikon was set up to...
BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
by Pogus CaesarPogus CaesarPogus Caesar is a British artist, television producer and director. He was born in St Kitts, West Indies, and grew up in Birmingham, England.-History:...
/ OOM Gallery Archive - The archive of Helen Chadwick is held in the Henry Moore Institute Archive – click on this link to search the archive catalogue
- Podcast: 'Viral Landscapes', Helen Chadwick
- Helen Chadwick (British Installation Artist, 1953–1996)
- http://www.artfund.org/artsaved/search/helen+chadwick (The Art FundNational Art Collections FundThe Art Fund is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as well as lobbying on behalf of museums and galleries and their users...
) - Helen Chadwick (Victoria and Albert Museum)
- Helen Chadwick (1953–1996) (The National Fine Art Education Digital Collection)
- Helen Chadwick (British Council)
- Turner Prize History – Artists: Helen Chadwick (Tate Britain)
- Helen Chadwick (Tate)
- Domestic Sanitation, Latex Glamour Rodeo
- Helen Chadwick (1953–1996), Artist (National Portrait Gallery)
Works
- BBC image gallery (22 works)
- Bad Blooms: Wreaths to Pleasure #11
- Eat Me
- Wreath to Pleasure No 1 & Wreath to Pleasure No 10
- Cibachrome Photograph – Vanity
- Screenprint – Allegory of Misrule
- Nostalgie de la Boue
- Meat Abstract, 1989 (i)
- Meat Abstract, 1989 (ii)
- Meat Abstract, 1989 (iii)
- Meat Abstract, 1989 (iv)
- Meat Abstract, 1989 (v)
- Meat Abstract # 4
- One Flesh, 1985
- One Flesh
- Of Mutability
- Piss Flowers
- Self-Portrait (National Galleries of Scotland)