Helen Shaddock – Breaking The Mould
Artwork by Helen Shaddock, a Glasgow-based maker refusing to be categorised.
Review by Kat Hayes
Links – Helen Shaddock / Glasgow International Artists Bookfair
“What I dream of is an art of
balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing
subject-matter; an art which might be for every mental worker, be he
businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental
soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical
fatigue.”
Henri Matisse, Paris, 1908
Helen Shaddock’s work on first encounter
is, rather thrillingly what I’d imagine it’d be like to wander into a
(admittedly oversized) child’s playpen. Solid blocks of colourful
abstracted shapes are dotted around like beautiful building bricks
strewn around by the errant hands of a toddler.
Shaddock’s work seeks an immediate familiarity
with the audience through its playful simplicity. Each piece has a
tactile quality, from the bright colour scheme to the rounded and
squared off geometric form. The bright colours do as much to suggest
childhood toys and games as do the shapes.
Stemming from both a curiosity and
attraction to colour, stripes, and patterns, both natural and
man-made, the work is pitched in an ambiguous area between painting and
the three-dimensional. Layers of colour are used to create sculptural
forms via an intricate casting process.
Shaddock’s motivations include the
desire to blur the boundaries between 2D and 3D and to reject the
“human need to organise and categorise”. She does this by producing
work that defies this categorisation; it is neither what one would
necessarily consider painting, nor is it purely sculpture.
Shaddock’s intention is to force us to
question how necessary it is to classify, in the artist’s
words, “sculpture as sculpture or painting as
paintings”. This rejection of formal boundaries allows the work to
escape the ties of a particular medium, which Shaddock says she finds
‘unoriginal’, especially in the context of galleries that link
unrelated work together via medium alone. This rejection of traditional
values makes it difficult to pigeonhole her practice as either sculptor
or painter. Shaddock clearly finds a lack of classification liberating:
“[I enjoy] not being restricted to one
medium as working in a variety of media as gives me the flexibility to
realise different ideas in different ways. I feel that it keeps my work
evolving as I am not tied to one way of doing things.”
Interestingly, despite Shaddock’s
rejection of over-simplified classification, she regards her work as ‘an
enquiry into order and chaos’. Put simply, it can be seen a metaphor
for the world in which we live, where one can so easily be overwhelmed
by the mass of information that bombards us on a daily basis.
Her interest lies in the way that the
mind processes this mass of data into a semblance of order. The playful
lines of colour could be said to represent Shaddock’s “desire to focus
on the positive aspects of life, remain optimistic about the future, and
remind others of the joy that the simplest of things can bring”.
Method
The physical process involved in the
making of Shaddock’s pieces is a laborious task: methodically preparing
the shaped moulds; making them waterproof; mixing unique
(non-factory) colours in the plaster pigment; adding the polymer. It is
ritualistic and points towards a preoccupation with process. Regarding
her cone-like structures, the preparation is not where the process
stops, as the mould needs to be constantly shifted to allow the plaster
to cover the entirety in layers of distinct colours. This then needs to
be repeated for subsequent colours, which can be numerous.
Despite this methodical preparation, the
artist states that she “fully embraces the uncontrollable outcomes” of
this highly structured casting process: “I try not to control the
pouring of the plaster too much. I like the unexpected elements [of each
piece]; the dripping, the merging of colours and the splashes”. She
admits that, when working on multiple casts, she often loses track of
the order of colours that have been used in each mould. However, this
is a consequence she enjoys, as it creates an air of excitement when the
mould is opened and the colours emerge.
Shaddock’s work is playful and touches
upon a great swathe of styles and influences. Look once and you see
familiar but abstracted shapes common in modernist architecture (see the
lately refurbished cubed colour scheme of Park Hill in Sheffield or the
bold aesthetics of the Golden Lane Estate in London). Equally, you
could look again, and see echoes of Kitsch, Pop Art and perhaps a
whisper of Vorticism.
Background
Helen Shaddock graduated from the
Glasgow School of Art in 2008 and has exhibited nationally and
internationally. Her work is in a number of public and private
collections.
She was selected for a residency at
Market Gallery, Glasgow in March 2013, which culminated in Studio
Project, a solo exhibition of selected work produced during the
residency. Other solo exhibitions include Strength in
numbers at The Briggait, Glasgow (2011); Coloured Matter, Here Gally,
Bristol (2011); Schema, Che Camille, Glasgow (2010). She currently has a
solo exhibition titled Groovings, at Motherwell Theatre and Concert
Hall (until October 30th 2013).
Helen is also a co-founder of Glasgow International
Artists’ Bookfair.
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