visual/sound artist
HELENA HAMILTON
Since the Covid-19 pandemic Helena has been interested in creating experimental works beyond the gallery to more personal sites. 'On Wanting' is the first in a series of work exploring the potential of utilising domestic space as a site for experiencing experimental art.
On Wanting was hosted online through the public engagement programme for the Centre for Contemporary Arts gallery in Derry (NI) throughout September 2022 (https://www.ccadld.org/public-programme/on-wanting).
Below is a 1 minute outtake of the work:
Helena continues her work on blurring boundaries between digital and physical media, and sound and visual art in her installation "On Wanting". This audio-visual installation utilises gradually transitioning colour, as an evolving effect that bleeds into a physical space, playing with viewer's perception of time and atmosphere. Sound has been intentionally sourced from Helena’s everyday sonic environment. The foundation of this is the nursery rhyme A Farmer Wants a Wife, recorded from one of her child's toys.
"The farmer wants a wife...the farmer gets a wife...
The wife wants a child...the wife gets a child...
The child wants a Miss...the child gets a Miss...
The Miss wants a dog...the Miss wants a dog...
The dog wants a bone...the dog gets a bone..."
A problematic nursery rhyme, interpreted and used in this work as material that signifies a contemporary condition of perpetually seeking instant gratification.. Playfully, she has time-stretched the recorded rhyme multiple times, doing so creating drones which have been used as the basis of this work. Other layers of audio included are soundtracks from around the domestic environment. Each sample reflects personal joyful moments when wanting is neutralised by the beautiful banality of the everyday. Such as rain, birds, and Rice Krispies. The final audio sample is pencil on paper. Helena utilised the sound of mark making whilst listening to the drones to dictate the speed, location and duration of each mark. Primarily following the sound rather than the visual.