ABOUT
Helen Gilbart is particularly interested in accessing specific histories buried deep within her subject. How a place, form or object has been physically made, what it has experienced, witnessed or might reveal, how it has evolved, the clues it might reveal: these questions direct her explorations. Such processes were first initiated during Gilbart’s joint BA Honours degree in Geography with Art and the Environment when she worked extensively in the field and have formed a long thematic exploration ever since; producing work by embedding herself directly within her subject – be it the landscape or with other related subject matter ever since. Her various residencies and commissions have enabled her to work in the UK and abroad using mainly paint, and occasionally print, textiles and sculpture.
Gilbart’s awards include those for extended periods working in specific landscapes in the Mediterranean. Amongst these was a year residency in Cyprus and another for fifteen months in coastal Andalusia developing her interests. Other residencies include Artist in Residence in the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Cambridge between 1999 and 2006, working with Earth Scientists and outstanding palaeontology that offered clues to specific landscapes over huge sweeps of time. In 2009 Gilbart was funded to work at the UNESCO Burgess Shale fossil beds in Field, British Columbia as part of Darwin200. Since 2010 archaeological themes have dominated, with projects triggered through the British Museum; working from their stored collections and in the AHOB (Ancient Human Occupation of Britain) project in Happisburgh, Norfolk. These were referenced in Into the Holloway – an extensive, linear work of 325 paintings that was completed and documented as a film in 2018. In this, and in most recent projects entitled Conversations, the hidden archive buried in specific landscapes and objects is further explored. Recently Gilbart has completed Book of Hours I & II – a Lockdown meditation spanning approximately 18 months, exploring time, place, histories, identity, humanity and connections. Comprising nearly 800 small painted images on playing cards, Book of Hours forms two large image books. In collaboration with The Art Station, Saxmundham and funding from the UK’s Covid Recovery Fund, an associated film made with Emily Richardson and a fully notated microsite have been produced. The books, film and microsite were all first shown in spring 2022. In 2022 she also exhibited the substantial work: Into the Holloway; A Walk at Dusk for the first time.