HELEN MARTINO

Training: Degree- Central School of Art & Design, London

Helens work is about communication in its various forms. It explores a three dimensional yet abstract representation of narrative and dialogue.

There are various kinds of dialogue. Of course there is speaking and listening but there is also the internal dialogue of imagination, thoughts and dreams. This can be seen in the figures which, though apparently listening, can be wrapped in thought. Some appear very much alone – talking, or listening, to some unseen, whilst others such as the ladies sitting on armchairs and sofas are thinking more about the pleasures of chatting and gossiping.

She weaves a narrative element into her work. Within each group the subtlest difference in form or surface may totally change the emotion or meaning expressed. Words scattered like colours in a kaleidoscope, are embedded into the surface of the abstracted forms on which the women are seated, or onto the clothes they wear. This is intended to enhance the sense of narrative in the work.

The construction of the less three dimensional pieces plays with the idea of paintings and sculpture. The decorative and comfortable nature of the seats and fabrics gives a painterly backdrop to the abstracted forms of the women.

It has taken Helen years to realise that sculptural works, like pots, do not necessarily need openings to reveal the inside. She has slowly gained the confidence and the certainty that volume, in a sculptural form, is revealed through the form itself. As a result the volume is all the more powerful because of its containment. In this work about dialogue she is using this notion of inside and outside in a new way, hopefully exploring the tension between form, surface, imagination and communication.