Helen Fox - Retrospective
The doll’s-house was made by Helen’s father and is one of a few childhood things that has survived 50+ years. Each house they had before the divorce, her father added an extension to. He dug the foundations, laid each brick, plastered, wired and plumbed. The house/home is a symbol of family and for Helen holds memories of the complete family unit, father, mother, sister and herself together. Divorce had a massive impact on Helen and her sister, the damage it caused runs deep.
Helen’s work tends to involve making work for installation; the space to show work in, feeds into the process of making. Mindful of the space available in the Manx Museum, she was conscious that to construct an installation would perhaps be unrealistic. So the idea evolved for the retrospective. Helen decided that the doll’s house would be a good structure/vessel to enable her to make small scale installations. Taking her past key works and revisiting the materials, shapes and textures in the small spaces. In revisiting her past works for the doll’s house, Helen was able to reconsider the use and manipulation of the materials, to reconsider shapes, layers and textures within the space.
In researching model exhibition spaces, she discovered a number of artists and projects which came
from COVID when we were unable to visit galleries.
She came across shelteringplacegallery:
https://www.artshelp.com/shelter-in-place-gallery-reimagining-space-in-a-global-pandemic/
where the quality of light makes it hard not to believe that the spaces are models. Helen always wanted lights in the doll’s-house and finally it has light.
https://bostonhassle.com/small-space-big-art-an-interview-with-eben-haines-and-delaney-dameronof-
shelter-in-place-gallery/
The house is presented on the frame at a height in which you can peer in, like a child. A voyeur looking to the spaces, into another world. The shapes and forms pressing against the boundaries of the spaces. The surface qualities of something old and treasured against the newly manipulated forms.
Medium: wood, found materials, mixed media and rug
Dimensions: doll’s house 164 x 61 x 45 cm, rug 171 x 120 cm
Helen’s work tends to involve making work for installation; the space to show work in, feeds into the process of making. Mindful of the space available in the Manx Museum, she was conscious that to construct an installation would perhaps be unrealistic. So the idea evolved for the retrospective. Helen decided that the doll’s house would be a good structure/vessel to enable her to make small scale installations. Taking her past key works and revisiting the materials, shapes and textures in the small spaces. In revisiting her past works for the doll’s house, Helen was able to reconsider the use and manipulation of the materials, to reconsider shapes, layers and textures within the space.
In researching model exhibition spaces, she discovered a number of artists and projects which came
from COVID when we were unable to visit galleries.
She came across shelteringplacegallery:
https://www.artshelp.com/shelter-in-place-gallery-reimagining-space-in-a-global-pandemic/
where the quality of light makes it hard not to believe that the spaces are models. Helen always wanted lights in the doll’s-house and finally it has light.
https://bostonhassle.com/small-space-big-art-an-interview-with-eben-haines-and-delaney-dameronof-
shelter-in-place-gallery/
The house is presented on the frame at a height in which you can peer in, like a child. A voyeur looking to the spaces, into another world. The shapes and forms pressing against the boundaries of the spaces. The surface qualities of something old and treasured against the newly manipulated forms.
Medium: wood, found materials, mixed media and rug
Dimensions: doll’s house 164 x 61 x 45 cm, rug 171 x 120 cm