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Article by Helen Helen Hopcroft, Ceramics:Art and Perception an an international ceramics magazine published in US Issue 84 June - Sept 2011
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Statement:
Helen thinks in abstraction professing a dislike for the obvious, as abstraction offers one the opportunity to create atmosphere and to leave the works open ended and available to multiple interpretations.
She likes to make forms “that barely hold together” and which have an edgy balance, for example her Tower series or her Fungoid Form series. Her work is generally hand formed with some pieces having a wheel thrown component – this being most evident in her recent porcelain works where a stark purity of form and colour (usually white) is counter balanced with more free, convoluted and organic sections that, on their painterly surface, carry undertones reminiscent of sea life, the archaeological or the geological. Here she creates visual and tactile surfaces by imprinting, sgraffito and distressing, sanding back to reveal the marks beneath. Subtlety is achieved by varying the thicknesses of the layers beneath the glazes which themselves vary in gloss and translucency.
Left: Detail surface textures
Right: Aquatic II 2011,
Paper clay, porcelain and slip glaze.
