HELEN PHILIPP

Artist in Residence at Shakespeare Grove Artist Studios, St Kilda.

MY WORK

helen philipp

‘Stitch by stitch, circle by circle, weaving is like the creation of life, all things are connected”. Auntie Ellen Trevorrow, 2003

Although predominantly using Ngarrindjeri weaving style taught to her by Elder and mentor Ellen Trevorrow, Helen has departed from the use of native grasses in favour of dyed Madagascan raffia, paper twine, wire and found plastics. Her works draw inspiration from the vibrant colours and circular forms of sea- creatures, using enlarged photographs of plankton as a reference for creating sculptural forms. Underpinning this is Helen’s exploration of the relationship between form, materiality, and colour in the discipline of her weaving.

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SOLO EXHIBITION
"14 PIECES"

Carlisle Street Art Space
May 12-June 9 2021

For some years I had been weaving sculptural works based on the circular forms of sea creatures, particularly photographic enlargements of Plankton such as Jellyfish, Squid and Tintinnids. The challenge became, to respond through my work to the disturbing CSIRO findings about the damage waste plastic does to marine life.

I began to collect plastic on the St Kilda foreshore, where I walk my dog: straws, soya sauce containers and bottle tops, which were all in abundance, thrown away by those who visit the beach or washed into our bay through storm water.

The materiality of the plastics began to fascinate me as did the challenge of incorporating them into my woven forms. I tried to use their shapes and colours in ways that enhanced and furthered the aesthetic, whilst employing different ways to incorporate the plastics which would provoke thought about the way they permeate and damage marine

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Entangled 2021

Entangled (a smack of Jellyfish)
Copper wire, Viennese paper twine, Madagascan raffia, varnish, fishing line.
Plastic refuse is polluting our seas and their eco system. All the plastic entangled in the Jellyfish tentacles was collected from St Kilda beach.

INSITU 'LEFTOVER- LOVE' AUSTRALIAN TAPESTRY WORKSHOP 2022

'Entangled' (Jellyfish) by Helen Philipp, Sculptural steel works by Carolyn Menzies,

PLASTIC FILLED CEPHALOPOD 2020

I find new ways of using the plastic; here the plastic filled squid symbolises the mass ingestion of plastic by marine life.

Cephalopods include squid, octopus, nautilus and cuttlefish. Cephalopods are famous for their eyes, which are large, and in some species, as complex as the human eye. This fact is celebrated visually by the addition of vintage buttons.

If you look closely, you will observe that these creatures have literally become engorged with plastic.