RSA Winter Newsletter 2019

I feel very honored to be included in the RSA Winter Newsletter 2019, alongside friends, former tutors and colleagues such as Stuart Mackenzie and Ross Sinclair.

Having just graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in 2008, it was a huge confidence boost

to be selected to exhibit in New Contemporaries 2019 at the RSA. I used the opportunity to

make new work which proved more challenging than anticipated as I no longer had access to the facilities and space at Art School. At the time I was doing a full-time, voluntary internship at Glasgow Sculpture Studios and, in order to be able to afford food and rent, I had an evening and weekend job, meaning that I had very little time to make artwork. It was a great introduction to the realities of being a Fine Artist, and ten years on, I am as busy as ever, juggling employment and self-employment with valuable studio time.

Following the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition, I secured myself a studio in Glasgow, and

spent five more years making artwork, exhibiting, leading workshops and doing residencies. In 2014 I moved to Newcastle to pursue a Master of Fine Art Postgraduate Degree at Newcastle University. In 2016 I graduated with a Distinction, was the recipient of the Hatton Award and was awarded with a Graduate Studio at The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, where I continue to have a studio.

I really benefitted from exhibiting in the prestigious location of the RSA and believe the support from the curatorial team has contributed to my further successes. In 2017 I was awarded an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts for a new body of work investigating the experience of auditory and visual hallucinations. One of the highlights was participating in a Spoken Word residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada where new work was created and presented.

I share the development of my work via my blog (https://helenshaddock.blogspot.co.uk/) and website (www.helenshaddock.co.uk). I continue to work in a multidisciplinary manner, through installation, performance, sound, video, writing and sculpture. Over time I have

become more confident about making work that is rooted in contemporary experience in both an emotional (feelings and thoughts) and physical (materials and situations) sense. My work addresses the complex struggle to achieve equilibrium and balance in society today. My research examines how it can immerse an audience in multi-layered psychological and physical situations. Recently, language, in all its forms, has become more central to my practice and I am excited about how my work will continue to evolve.