Focus on South West artist Helen Seiver

‘Heart Strings House’. Photo by Eva Fernandez

Helen Seiver has lived through hefty personal situations.  Major calamities have birthed massive realisations, and unforeseen couplings. The process has been confronting and liberating.

Recently she camped near the site of a tragedy in the Pilbara; she was examining the idea of forgiveness.

“It involves two people and a tragedy that affected us both”

The specifics remain private for now. But, she ponders

“What does forgiveness even look like when you make art? It’s hard to make art that doesn’t look obvious”.

A prior work, ‘Heart Strings’ is a poignant, personal response to the theme of a Stations of the Cross exhibition held annually in Perth’s CBD. Station 4 is about Jesus meeting his mother.

Helen’s Mum had lived with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease and died when Helen was 31. She realised that her parent had mothered the best way she could, and there were reasons for her forgetfulness.

“The clothes I ripped up to create this (piece) were deconstructing me. It was a wonderful realisation which instantly replaced my belief that Mum didn’t love me to… Wow, what an amazing woman!”.

Cloud Seed Express. Photo by Lloyd Smith.

For Sculpture @ Bathers (Beach in Fremantle), she made ‘Imaginings’, a work about the warming of the ocean and death of coral. Rigger’s wire was made into an imagined coral shape with thousands of question marks sticking out. (Check out Helen’s photo of this work at the top of the page).

“What are we doing to the earth and why are we doing it? This is our home”.

‘Cloud Seed Express’ is a humorous slant on a serious issue. It brings together her love of old, rusty, found objects and the idea that her clouds can be wheeled around for cloud seeding

Helen recently won WA’s inaugural Regional Arts Fellowship through the State Government’s Regional Arts and Cultural Investment Program. Congratulations, Helen!