Article by Jurate Macnoriute
Guest of THE SECRETS OF PERFECTION Helene Black was born in Cyprus and grew up in Australia. Her art deals with the intersection of industry, technology and social theory. She works with Mixed media, installations, sculptures, paintings and new media.
By nature Helene Black serious melancholic concentrated contemporary woman artist influenced by Italian art movement ‘Arte Povera’ (‘poor art’), and we can say even more, she can be reckoned among members of the movement though this movement covered the decade from 1962 to 1972 called as anarchic. Its representatives were Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Piero Gilardi, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini and Gilberto Zorio. Their experimental approach, no spurning humble everyday materials, including mud, gravel, broken glass, rags, and scrap metal, broke down limits between art and life. They created paintings, happenings, sculptures, photography, performances and installations. They had little interest in fine art’s history and elite of artists. Exploring the space of the gallery and beyond the gallery showing the relationship between art and life they felt energy of surrounding and involved it in expression of their art works. Not complicated work process and the rhythm of the placement of the elements in their creations are in the first place. Their metaphorical imagery is related with nature, history, and contemporary life, solving problems of experience and meaning, giving for spectator active role in the centre of a discussion. They were opposed to any canon.
Helene Black quasi renews life of ‘Arte Povera’ in the light of the 21st century applying new materials and new technologies that was not known in 1962-1972. Her artworks are constructed of mirror stainless steel, perspex, perspex mirror, diffraction grating film, computer manipulated image exposed on color separation film and aluminum text. She likes hard slow sublime rhythms, poor, but weighty colors that came from antique. Digital photography, computer helps to build her many layered tricky compositions, dealing with the relationships between the real and the virtual, the private to the public — theme of the authenticity of a person’s existence is attractive for the artist. She applies tags of Internet language together with portraits and copies of personal documents like the birth certificate as signs carrying deeper meaning. These mentioned things make novelty brought by Helene Black for ‘Arte Povera’.
It would be appropriate to put the date in which each article was written, not just for the records but for the reader’s better understanding and engagement with it.