Helen Britton. The Story So Far

Although Helen Britton also works as a painter, illustrator, sculptor and installation artist, what usually comes to mind on hearing her name are her jewellery objects, which she makes from found objects and industrial materials. She documents her research in photographs, seeing this as an important part of her work.

Britton’s work profoundly explores questions of remembrance and cultural memory. Her preference for the discarded is clear. Fascinated by artefacts – and by the stories they tell – she rummages through junk shops and flea markets, drawing inspiration from her extensive archive that encompasses German and Czech glass, or costume and everyday jewellery as much as it does photos and drawings.

At the same time, Britton explores the deeper meaning of decoration, all the while repeatedly deriving parallels between historical events and the production of jewellery. Whether happy childhood memories or the darker side of life, her objects point to all the effort, humor, joy and failure of our existence … rough signifiers, visually reduced and emotionally condensed.

In addition to its opulent coloured fore-edging, double screen-printed linen cover, and varying papers, the new publication presents Britton’s diverse, colourful and often playful work arranged according to theme. Three hundred and sixty mostly large-format images reveal counterpoints to her pieces with photos of animals, houses, Australian nature, the artist’s archive and other personal impressions. Furthermore, the photographic essay My Godmother’s House provides atmospheric insights into the rooms and interiors of her godmother’s home in Australia and her various collections, which fascinated Helen Britton even as a child.

Texts by leading international curators and authors and by the artist herself as well as an imaginary conversation with Ted Snell and Robert Cook provide insights into Helen Britton’s work from different perspectives. A vivid journey through forty years of artistic creation, in which memory, meaning and emotion coalesce.