Interview with Helen Sear
Profiled
Helen Sear on her work, photography and what it means to represent
Wales at next year’s Venice Biennale
and the convergence of image and
surface, perhaps a result of years
working in front of a computer screen.
RW: Tell us about your recent work
‘Chameleon’, what led to this piece?
Helen Sear at Plas Glyn Y Weddw
Ruth Wilbur: What draws you to
photography?
Helen Sear: Photographic practice
is really diverse and exciting at the
moment. Many emerging photographers
and artists are embracing and
experimenting with different genres
and approaches to the medium.
New technologies have completely
altered the photographic landscape.
Photographers are also returning
to books as material objects and
interrogating the digital image beyond
the photographic.
Photography, for me, involves both
acceleration and slowing down in equal
measures, and sometimes a surface
upon which to test my own physical and
emotional existence. I am returning more
and more to exploring the presence of
the image in a sculptural space,
HS: The work is partly inspired by
Man Ray’s photograph ‘Cette Espèce
D’hélianthe’ and Paul Nash’s sunflower
paintings. My husband grew a sunflower
on our allotment that was so heavy it
had the scale and presence of a human
face. Through videoing the flower at
night, a void appeared which slowly
and imperceptibly became substance,
resembling a disembodied eye returning
the gaze of the viewer. I am interested
in giving flora and fauna an equal
status in relation to human subjects.
The installation of the piece is very
important in order to maximise the
materiality of the image. Its place in
the contemporary collection at the Glyn
Vivian via the Wakelin Award last year will
ensure that it will be shown in the future
in the way it was intended.
RW: ‘Sightlines’ 2011 is a series of
portraits of women obscured by china
bird figurines that act as masks. The
viewer immediately becomes aware of
what they cannot see, and what has
been interrupted/disrupted. Do you
often think about the role the viewer/
audience play in your work?
HS: The camera prioritises sight over
the other senses and I like to bring the
whole body into the act of viewing. To
do this it is necessary to activate the
viewer in some way. That might involve
not allowing them to see something in
the picture, or deliberately covering
something up. There may be different
viewing positions, such as in ‘Gone To
Earth’, 1994, where if you are standing
a long way from the picture it looks as
if you might be flying at night over a
landscape with small lights far below you.
When close up against the surface of
the image, the viewer can see where the
photograph was originally pierced and
LED lights embedded. You are brought
simultaneously to the skin of the image
and the fur of the animal.
With ‘Sightlines’ I was playing on one level
with photographing paint and painting
photographs, where the single painted
eye of the china bird becomes like a
talisman, held up in front of the face of
the sitter as protection against the allconsuming lens of the camera.
RW: Tell us about the art scene in South
Wales
HS: Sadly, the temporary exhibitions
programme at Newport Museum has ended
due to funding cuts. This venue provided
a great opportunity for exciting
curatorial interventions within the
collection.
Helen Sear’s
photographic work
has developed from
a background of
performance, film and
installation made
in the 1980s. Her
work is in a number
of collections
including the
British Council,
the Arts Council of
Wales, Arts Council
England, Museum
of Contemporary
Photography Chicago
and Aperture
Foundation New York.
Helen lives and
works in Wales
and is Reader in
Photography and Fine
Art Practice at the
University of South
Wales.
In 2013 Helen was
the recipient of
the Wakelin Award,
which supported
the purchase of the
work ‘Chameleon’ for
the Glyn Vivian Art
Gallery’s permanent
collection.
Helen will represent
Wales at the Venice
Biennale in 2015.
See Helen’s profile
on Axisweb >
NOTES FROM WALES | AUTUMN 2014 23