What Lies Beneath
The artworks of Helen Nottage
Helen Nottage: Botanical Feet I
Helen Nottage's sculptures pay homage to anatomy, one of the oldest scientific disciplines. Anatomy has undergone an evolution from its infancy in the 3rd century, with its subsequent development marked by the introduction of Anatomical Theatres, when dissection became a performance art. Honoré Fragonard in the 18th century even rendered his specimens into artefacts. Anatomical artists proceeded to create whole-body examples, which were dried and vanished. They wanted to preserve their specimens to document and display artistically so that the pieces would last.
More recently, the first 'Body Worlds' exhibition was held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1995. It showcased plastination-preserved human bodies, a process developed by Dr Gunther von Hagens. The purpose of the show was to educate the public about the inner workings of our bodies and highlight the damaging effects of lifestyle choices like drinking and smoking.
Helen Nottage: Wyrd Girl
When Helen Nottage saw the 'Body Worlds' exhibition in London in 2002, it had a profound impact on her. Helen says—
"I loved the way he isolated certain structures through plastination. The network of veins and capillaries in the hand, and how similar the structures looked to tree branches or coral".
At the same time, Helen embarked on a life-affirming project at university, where her love of gardens, mythology and the body collided. The project involved designing an item for an outdoor space. Choosing to produce a sculpture, she harked back to her childhood fascination with the illustrated books by Arthur Rackham. Rackham's success peaked during the Golden Age of British book illustration, from 1890 to 1918. He challenged the viewer by presenting images that were both reassuring and frightening. It was his artworks that were to plant the seeds of inspiration in Helen's sculptures today.
What she found in the 'Body Worlds' exhibition was that everything fitted together amazingly, the way all these different organs had developed in various ways from a tiny cluster of cells to form such a complex organism, and being able to see into all the layers which had been peeled away. An awe-inspiring hidden world inside the body. While simultaneously her ideas were also fitting together, some of those from many years ago all meeting at the same space and place in time—a eureka moment.
Helen Nottage: Male Head, Spiral Decay
Helen's figurative, écorché sculptures are layered with imagery from nature. Combined with the notion of decay, they reflect the temporary nature of life and the fragility of existence. Yet she chooses to capture her works in clay. Clay, which derives from earth, the place where we all will eventually return to and be recycled. Ceramics, fired clay, need all of the elements to come into being and will outlive us — it doesn't decay. Like those early anatomists wanting to preserve their creations, Helen is doing the same with her ideas, embedding them in clay for perpetuity.
Helen Nottage: Female Torso, Inkblot