Helen Sargeant
Helen Sargeant is an artist based in the UK, her collaborative practice explores the representation of the maternal body. Her work is autobiographical and she works with drawing, painting, stitching, collage, performance, photography, text, books, animation, and film media. Helen explores her personal and political identity as a woman, artist, and mother. She draws upon the female body as a site of memory, trauma, transformation, vulnerability, power, and decay. Art projects have included investigating maternal ambivalence, maternal labour, the politics of care, the ethics of collaborating with children, and maternal mental health. Paintings focus on the swollen torso, engorged breasts, and vulva, to process and remember embodied experiences of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. Sharp gestural lines, repetitive patterns, decoration, and motifs including breasts, eyes, spirals, safety pins, flowers, and grids draw the viewer into her works. Recent work includes drawing with hand- stitch onto found domestic textiles such as pillows, sheets, t-towels, serviettes, and tablecloths.
