Helen Gillam

Artist statement

You never see me from the place where I look at you? This 'steal' from Lacan underlies my work.

The world, fleeting and impermanent, is known to us both through sensation and through mental narrative. But sadly we can never see it from any perspective other than our own.

The human imperative to make meaning of all our experiences both enriches and constrains us. The world acting merely as a mirror to reflect our individual concerns.

The intention of my work is to explore the condition of being human and all its possible illustrated truths. My concerns are with perception and narrative.

Often starting from an existing image, I interrogate it through painting and repainting to reveal multiple meanings. My work with egg tempera on board enables me to create new meanings in addition to retaining earlier workings.

My aim is to communicate a sense of sadness and isolation that is the human condition. Whilst playfully illustrating our inability to ever experience the ever-shifting thing we call reality.

Through richness of image and surface I invite the viewer to knowingly experience how even pigment and support become mysteriously transformed through the human mind.