Helen Chadwick

Helen Chadwick (1953 – March 15, 1996) was a British artist.

Chadwick studied at Croydon College of Art, Brighton Polytechnic and then at the Chelsea School of Art.

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, flowers and chocolate. She is perhaps most famous for "Piss Flowers" (1991–92), bronze sculptures cast from cavities made when urinating in the snow by both Helen Chadwick and her partner David Notarius.

Earlier works include "Viral Landscapes", a series of photographs from the late 1980s where blotches (actually magnified images of cells from her body) are superimposed over landscapes, and "Meat Abstracts" (1989) large photographs of meat juxtaposed with leather and fabric.

"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 doublely applicable to her as both a woman and an artist in the public eye.

So 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. "I made a conscience decision in 1988 not to represent my body. It immediately declares female gender and I wanted to be more deft." She thereby abandoned this practice and moved inside the body, to human flesh, and that which is common to all of us but we avoid thinking about. She did not abandon the themes of sexual identity and gender identity however. Her Cibachrome transparencies of 1990 entitled "Eroticism" depict two brains side by side.

Among her last works are a series of photographs of dead human embryos. 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 and prevents it from pumping.

Bibliography

* Helen Chadwick, Mary Horlock (contributor), Eva Martischnig (contributor), Mark Sladen (editor) "Helen Chadwick", Hatje Cantz Publishers (July 2004) ISBN 377571393-X
* N.P. James (Editor) "Helen Chadwick" CV Publications (September 1, 2005) ISBN 190472745-X
* Helen Chadwick "Enfleshings" Aperture Book (November 1989) ISBN 089381394-X
* Helen Chadwick "Stilled Lives" Portfolio Gallery (December 31, 1995) ISBN 0952060833
* "Of Mutability: Helen Chadwick" (exhibition catalogue, London, ICA, 1986)
* "Effluvia: Helen Chadwick" (exhibition catalogue, essay M. Allthorpe-Guyton, London, Serpentine Gal., 1994)
* Rideal, Liz, "Mirror Mirror: Self-portraits by women artists" 2001 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 12 September 2001 – 20 January 2002), p. 101
* Rideal, Liz, "Insights: Self Portrait" 2005, p. 17
* Rachel Jones, "Helen Chadwick and the Logic of Dissimulation", in: Margret Grebowicz (ed.) "Gender after Lyotard". NY: Suny, 2007.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/chadwickh1.shtml An audio interview with Chadwick from the BBC]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2605628 Helen Chadwick] (BBC)
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/portrait/story/0,11109,740350,00.html "The Guardian" on Chadwick's self-portrait "Vanitas II, Helen Chadwick" (1986)]
* [http://www.oomgallery.net/gallery.asp?location=40&c=251 Photograph of Helen Chadwick] at Ikon Gallery Birmingham by Pogus Caesar / OOM Gallery Archive
* [http://217.204.55.153/wwwroot/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Index.tcl The archive of Helen Chadwick is held in the Henry Moore Institute Archive – click on this link to search the archive catalogue]
* [http://217.204.55.153/wwwroot/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Overview.tcl&dsqSearch=(CreatorName='Chadwick') Search results on 'Chadwick']
* [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/podcasts/viral_landscapes.aspx Podcast: 'Viral Landscapes', Helen Chadwick]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/chadwick_helen.html Helen Chadwick (British Installation Artist, 1953–1996)]
* [http://www.artfund.org/search/artist/4804/helen-chadwick Artworks by Helen Chadwick] (The Art Fund)
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/photographerframe.php?photographerid=ph015 Helen Chadwick] (Victoria and Albert Museum)
* [http://fineart.ac.uk/artists/124/ Helen Chadwick (1953–1996)] (The National Fine Art Education Digital Collection)
* [http://collection.britishcouncil.org/html/artist/artist.aspx?id=18418 Helen Chadwick] (British Council)
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/chadwick.htm Turner Prize History – Artists: Helen Chadwick] (Tate Britain)
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2253&tabview=bio Helen Chadwick] (Tate)
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/artistsfilm/programme1/intimaterituals.htm#domestic "Domestic Sanitation, Latex Glamour Rodeo"]
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=Helen+Chadwick&LinkID=mp58666 Helen Chadwick (1953–1996), Artist] (National Portrait Gallery) ;Works
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/collective/gallery/index.shtml?collection=chadwick BBC image gallery (22 works)]
* [http://collection.britishcouncil.org/html/work/work.aspx?a=1&id=39268&section=/artist/ Bad Blooms: Wreaths to Pleasure #11]
* [http://www.artfund.org/artwork/9102/eat-me Eat Me]
* [http://www.artfund.org/artwork/5467/wreath-to-pleasure-no-1-wreath-to Wreath to Pleasure No 1 & Wreath to Pleasure No 10]
* [http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1987P5 Cibachrome Photograph – Vanity]
* [http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1987P64 Screenprint – Allegory of Misrule]
* [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/1abadbe7.html Nostalgie de la Boue]
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00054 Meat Abstract, 1989] (i)
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00055 Meat Abstract, 1989] (ii)
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00056 Meat Abstract, 1989] (iii)
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00057 Meat Abstract, 1989] (iv)
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00058 Meat Abstract, 1989] (v)
* [http://collection.britishcouncil.org/html/work/work.aspx?a=1&id=40012&section=/artist/ Meat Abstract # 4]
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00287 One Flesh, 1985]
* [http://collection.britishcouncil.org/html/work/work.aspx?a=1&id=49159&section=/artist/ One Flesh]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/chadwick.htm Of Mutability]
* [http://fineart.ac.uk/works/bt0005/ Piss Flowers]
* [http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collections/artist_search.php?objectId=42351 Self-Portrait] (National Galleries of Scotland)