HelenA Pritchard (b. 1975) in S. Africa, lives and works in London. Pritchard’s sculptural practice sees her transforms off-cuts and discarded materials from packaging and industry, giving these frugal, humble materials new meaning and a second life. At her hands, the materials translate from a capitalist short-lived destiny via the ritual of shopping, to that of art and making. Incorporating everyday materials and objects of waste from construction to domestic, these perceived failures of society examine attitudes towards our environment. Harnessing humour and metaphor, her work is at times, an ironic commentary on the fact that in art, a valued commodity, we want to know our paintings will last forever - the overwhelming human desire to leave a legacy. 

The work’s titles are often metaphors for the materials, incorporating issues of the environment, and cross-cultural distinctions. “At school I wished to do woodwork but was told I had to choose between Home Economics and Needlework because I was a girl”. The disparate use of materials in the work also shows no hierarchies; plastics, brass, gold leaf, wood, are brought together in a poetic way, highlighting their formal relations and referencing different artistic genres. 

HelenA is represented by TJ Boulting, London. 

selected works