Forthcoming show

Helen Baker took a residency as Abbey Fellow at the British School of Rome 2007 and this initiated a new series of works .

In Helens work we can see the influence of the old mosaic, the degenerated fresco and the remains of glorious architecture become rubble. Helen was also interested in the context of Rome as present , a glorious consumer capital, ‘For Pucci’ and ‘For Gucci’ query the politics and the aesthetics of fashion as a potential legacy.

Helen talks about the optical ‘mosaic-like’ works being ‘like shrunken ‘Brigit Riley‘s”’, frayed and left on the wrong wash cycle’. In the fragmented works such as ‘Blue’ we might also see the beauty of a sky being torn, with colour she creates references to a world on the brink of destruction. ‘Map’ with its old atlas tints, suggests territories in a state of mutation and disrepair.

Her architectural building block pieces are oddly reminiscent of both Guston and Klee they teeter on the edge of perspective. They do not claim a single viewpoint. They appear to be about to fall at any minute.