Beast

Beast (2008)

Watercolor on paper 61x46cm

HELENA GOLDWATER

Art First Projects

It is Monday and I am swamped by all the blogs I crave to write. Info from all the fantastic exhibits I have seen lately is piling up on my desk, growing like a little Beast on it's own...

Among other openings on Thursday I went to the private opening at the Art First Projects, I sort of invited myself in and they were kind enough to welcome me. 

Helena Goldwater's obscure small watercolor paintings that is hanging downstairs in the Gallery pulled me in. Looking at their neat details and precision, they have an initial depth that made me think of doomsday flowers. 

Closed Order 2 (2010)

Bouffant (2008) 

41 x 31cm, water colour on paper

At first glance Helena Goldwater’s paintings are delicate but intense watercolours of plant forms. Their attention to detail appears to record nature as a perfectly evolved endeavour. On closer reading however, they reveal hybridised forms, that begin to question truthful representations of the natural order, and in doing so present unidentifiable, biomorphic forms that inhabit in-between states of being. A sinister quality, or something rather humorous emerges, underpinned by the titles. This combination of qualities invites the viewer to experience a degree of discomfort, disrupted by pleasure.

Goldwater has been making performance art since 1989, and paintings since 2003, and in her paintings a concern with the performative is evident. Her watercolours reveal a dedication to the time consuming process of careful, almost obsessive depiction and conceptual exploration, that in themselves can be read as a ‘performance’ on paper. In both her practices she expresses a devotion to craft, utilizing water and paint as alchemical materials. Her performances, which often last many hours, echo her paintings, which take months to make, developing over time to inhabit something ‘other’ than the human realm.
     -Art First Project

Jaunty (2006)

The Three Disgraces (2010)

Fleshy parts (2009)

Closed order 3 (2010)

Hairy 1 (2006)

There is power in turning a subject we consider as beautiful into a grotesque reminder of our hybrid antennas. They looks slightly alive and carnivorous, don't you think?

With Love

Kristin