Helen Pynor

helen pynor

RECENT NEWS

AUSTRALIA COUNCIL VISUAL ARTS NEW WORK GRANT – ESTABLISHED ARTISTS
In July 2010 Helen received an Australia Council New Work Grant for Established Artists
of AU$20, 000. She received the grant in collaboration with artist Peta Clancy and it will
be used to fund their joint project “The Body is a Big Place”, exploring the phenomenology
and medicine of organ transplantation.

VISITING ARTIST, MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ART & DESIGN, MELBOURNE
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2010
During September and October 2010 Helen will be hosted by the Faculty of Art & Design
at Monash University, Melbourne. Helen will undertake the creation of a performance video
work created in the underwater environment of a swimming pool, with artist Peta Clancy.
Sound artist Gail Priest will produce the sound component of the work. The video will be
exhibited in 2011 at Performance Space as part of Peta and Helen’s collaborative project,
“The Body is a Big Place”, exploring organ transplantation.

AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS - INTER-ARTS PROJECT GRANT
Helen in collaboration with artist Peta Clancy and sound artist Gail Priest have been
awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Inter-Arts Project Grant, for their project
The Body is a Big Place. The project will explore questions arising from the experience
of organ transplantation. Following a residency at SymbioticA later this year the project
will culminate in a residency and exhibition at Performance Space (Sydney) in 2011,
curated by Bec Dean.

Link to Australia Council Inter-Arts Grant Assessment Report, March 2010

AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS - LONDON STUDIO
FEBRUARY - MAY 2011
Helen has recently been awarded the Australia Council London Studio, located in the
heart of London’s contemporary art district in Bethnal Green. Helen will undertake the
residency in early 2011, conducting research in London’s numerous museums of
medicine/ surgery and at the Wellcome Collection, following on from her PhD research.

Link to Australia Council International Residencies Grant Assessment Report, November 2009

SYMBIOTICA RESIDENCY, PERTH
NOVEMBER 2010 - JANUARY 2011
Helen will undertake a 3-month residency at SymbioticA, Centre of Excellence in
Biological Arts, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia,
in collaboration with Melbourne-based artist Peta Clancy. Together they will explore the
phenomenological landscape and medical implications of organ transplantation surgery,
focusing on the transplantation of hearts, for their project “The Body is a Big Place.”

SymbioticA

RESIDENCY, A.R.T. TOKYO
AUGUST 2010
As part of the RBS Emerging Artist Award received in October 2009, Helen undertook
a residency in August 2010 at A.R.T. Tokyo,established 20 years ago to support
avant-garde culture in Asia. Helen’s host during the residency was legendary Japanese
contemporary art figure Joni Waka, Founder and Director of A.R.T. Tokyo.

Link to press on A.R.T TOKYO

RESIDENCY AT PERFORMANCE SPACE, SYDNEY
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2011
As part of her collaborative project with Melbourne-based artist Peta Clancy, Helen will
undertake a residency at Performance Space in August-September 2011. The residency
will provide much needed research and development time for the development of their
major new installation work, “The Body is a Big Place”, exploring the phenomenon of
organ transplantation.

Performance Space

WINNER OF THE 2009 RBS EMERGING ARTIST AWARD
OCTOBER 2009
In October 2009 Helen was announced winner of the nationwide 2009 RBS Emerging
Artist Award, for her photographic triptych Milk (tea tree, bird’s nest fern, wattle).
The award comes with a $15 000 cash prize, an around-the-world airline ticket,
and a residency at A.R.T. Tokyo to be taken up in 2010. Helen’s triptych has been
acquired for the corporate collection of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Australia.

Link to national press on the 2009 RBS Emerging Artist Award win

PHD GRADUATION
MAY 2010
Helen graduated from her PhD doctorate in May 2010, undertaken through Sydney
College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. Her thesis, entitled Transgressive
Biology and Material Feminism: Bioconversations in Art, Evolution and Emergence
traverses evolutionary and developmental biology, ontologies of biology more broadly,
and visual art. Helen uses new and emergent understandings in developmental and
evolutionary biology to challenge the biology-culture divide, and as a framework from
which to understand the processes of making and encountering works of art.

CURRENT AND FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Royal Academy of Arts, London
Summer Exhibition

14 June - 22 August 2010

Royal Academy of Arts
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BD

Royal Academy

National Photography Award
Albury Regional Gallery, Australia

30 July– 26 September 2010

Judged by Isobel Crombie
Senior Curator of Photography
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Albury Regional Gallery
546 Dean Street
Albury

National Photographic-Prize

Liquid Ground
Solo exhibition of new work

4 November – 4 December 2010