Helen Gerritzen

Show Statement for Censor

In her work, Gerritzen plays with symbol and myth while using objects to evoke visual metaphors relating to the body. The images present and question the dualistic relationship of desire/transformation and power/gender, creating a tension between the body as a product of language and knowledge with that of the physical, mortal body. The work questions the body’s long history as a repository of cultural, sexual, medical and religious meanings.

The title "Censor" signifies the female body as a place of censor. It also directly references the series of photo etchings that were censored by Chinese border officials in 2015 and were blocked from entering the country for an intended exhibition at the China Print Museum in Guanlan, China.

About the Works in Censor:

tits

Antique anatomical illustrations of mammary glands from the medical text “Diseases Peculiar to Women”, and drawings by Louise Bourgeois created the inspiration for this series. The illustrations were reinterpreted as natural botanical forms, created using the painterly method of collagraph; these were printed on thin skins of Asian paper that are then glued to canvas.

Study 3 (Ana Mendieta—where are you?)

This project of photo etchings explores the ideas of gender and nature. Assembling a trans-gendered body and a gathering of antlers, I’ve placed these in the natural environment where culture and nature have the potential to collide. This project hopes to interrogate the intersections of power, male privilege, and nature.

Artist Statement

"My work explores a comparison of knowledge with the corporeal, using objects to reference the assumed associations of knowledge with power and the body with vulnerability. The images present and question the dualistic relationship of desire/transformation and power/gender, creating a tension between the body as a product of language and knowledge with that of the physical, mortal body.

I use found objects, and transformed objects, and even objects of make believe...the tree branch, antlers, the corbel, and the animal enclosure …to examine myths, symbols and old stories. Structures and environments for the stories are staged. Yet shape, scale, materiality, and surface are key considerations for the objects as they evoke visual metaphors relating to the body. The antlers must be worn, the enclosure entered. Yet always key to the objects are their gender associations."

Artist CV