Renovated horse box, drawings, diagrams texts and found objects.
In this project the artist Helen Sharp explores the role animals occupy in our cultural and emotional development. Working with a variety of animals, groups, breeders and farmers, Sharp draws out a portrait of our relationship to animals and the mutual dependencies that shape their different lives. Travelling across North Leitrim in her ‘Museum of the Sentient’, (a reconstructed horse box) the artist taps into the symbiotic connection between humans, animals and the environments they share. By enlisting a range of processes: drawing, recording, meeting and collecting the artist explores the obscurity of being human and the comfort of being animal.
'Man…is a top animal exiled on a tiny speck of a planet in the Milky Way. That is the reason why he does not know himself; he is cosmically isolated. He can only state with certainty that he is no monkey, no bird, no fish, and no tree. But what he positively is remains obscure.' 1.
1. Sabini, M (ed) (2005). The Earth Has A Soul (excerpt from Carl Jung). 2nd ed. California: North Atlantic Books. 13.
Helen Sharp is an artist living and working in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland currently studying for a degree in equine management . Helen grew up on the tiny Hebridean island of Vatersay in Scotland and left the islands to take up a place in Edinburgh College of Art where she gained a First Class honours in Sculpture and received the Andrew Grant Bequest Scholarship for Highest Academic Achievement. Helen went on to gain a Masters with Distinction in Time Based Art from Dartington College of Arts.
After some time teaching and also exhibiting internationally many times, Helen went on to be director of Catalyst Arts Gallery in Belfast and then to complete a PhD in Art from the University of Ulster. Alongside and equally as important to her academic career, Helen has continued her art practice and recently had two solo shows, `The Hero and Now’ (Catalyst Arts) and 'Love's Rebellious Joy' (Higher Bridges Gallery) exhibiting film, drawing, photography, print and installation. Helen was one of five shortlisted artists for the Cultural Olympiad in 2009 and also published a book in collaboration with artist Aisling O’ Beirn entitled ‘Or So We’ve Heard’.
Helen’s community art work has included sculpture collaborations with artist Duncan Ross, community gardens, environmental sculpture and a recently completed commission for Kerrygold Butter to design and install a bespoke artwork and garden in MileEnd, London. In 2012 Helen curated 'Humbly Through the Dust' for The British Council, an exhibition featuring Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Henry Moore and Mark Wallinger. She also recently curated a music event 'Dark At Its Full' for The Happy Days International Beckett Festival. Helen founded OutLands with Diane Henshaw, an artist led collective with its heart in the rural.
Curated by Seán O'Reilly
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