Helen Gorril: AoW 4 - 13th Septemeber 2010

  Fushe Kosove Sex Cafe Chair

A few facts about Gorrill :

Whilst living in an isolated rural community where no-one really understands her artistic ways, Gorrills studio is filled with prosthetic legs and strange props as inspiration for new work. She enjoys red wine and sticky toffee pudding, and believes standing up for what you believe in is the best feeling ever.

Chisinau Girls Graduation Gown

The position of the woman artist in a patriarchal society remains problematic, female artists often seen as extremists rather than activists. Gorrill is currently working with sculpture and embroidery, the latter being a medium traditionally understood as 'feminine', devoid of the traditional values associated with masculine high art. The art of embroidery, once the most valued cultural form of ‘medieval ecclesiastical culture’, was progressively de-professionalised, domesticated and feminised by a male dominated art world. Rather than using the thread as metaphor for the increasing restrictions on women’s power that occurred in the development of Western history, She uses embroidery as a medium with a heritage in women’s hands, and thus as more appropriate than male-associated paint for making a feminist statement.

Detail of Legtop Sex Cafe Chair

Gorrill's work looks at post-feminist concepts of power and control, investigating enforcement, reinforcement and reactions to patriarchal society. Particularly within the idea of patriarchy and how it has been moulded by scripts for male power, using cultural criticism of male scripts (the bible and popular culture) to challenge existing social norms. 

Selling Olga, The Slave Market 1

 
The use of critical theory (Foucault’s regulation and control of the body in constructing power narratives; and Hegel’s slave-master dependency theories) offers a glimpse into worlds outside of texts and a map of the effects of knowledge upon identities that inform and give weight to Gorrill's enquiry.

www.helengorrill.com