Helen Chadwick: British Installation Artist

Helen Chadwick was a British photographer, as well as a sculptor, and an installation artist. Her birth date was May 18, 1953. She was born in Croydon, England to a Greek Refugee and a local from east London. Her interest in art was sparked after leaving Croydon High School and taking a Fine Art course at Croydon College. She went on and transferred to Brighton Polytechnic from 1973 to 1976. During her time at Brighton, Chadwick had a degree show and is one of her first notable works, Domestic Sanitation (1976). This was a show consisting of her and three other women wearing latex suits while painting on their skin. This performance had the women recreate beauty salon rituals but in a bizarre way. This piece was about the ideals of the female identity. Chadwick would eventually go on and move to Hackney and enrolled at Chelsea College of Art for a year. Chadwick had a wide collection of fascinating artworks. Her pieces include performance pieces, installations, and sculptures. One of her first galleries was called Ego Geometria Sum (1983-6), a ten-piece exhibit based on her growth and development. Stated on www.tate.org.uk , “Initially titled ‘Growing Pains’, it charts the artist’s development from birth to the age of thirty through ten key stages of her life. These are embodied in ten geometric sculptures based on everyday objects of nostalgic significance from her past. Shadowy photographs of Chadwick’s naked body are superimposed with photographs of the original objects and other related elements on the geometric forms.” (Tate, The Labours X). Helen Chadwick have appeared in the nude in several of her pieces.  Chadwick disrupts the convention by introducing herself into the picture. As both the artist and subject of the work, the naked figure is not a supine model but the creator of this work of art.

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