Helen Britton | The Story So Far

Between 2017 and 2019 Helen traveled three times to Australia to document the house of her great Aunt and Godmother Kath Carr on the Clarence river (Ngunitiji, Yaegl Country). Kath taught Helen how to make collages with pressed Australian flowers that she had collected, or with metal fillings from the lathe in the shed, to paint on porcelain which was her greatest hobby, and to make jewellery. Her house was full of wonders, shells, gemstones, driftwood, dried seaweed and fish. When she died her house was locked and left completely intact. Helen’s detailed photographic investigation was a journey back to the beginnings of her creative practice.

The Story So Far, takes as its starting point this photographic essay creating a network of connections between that time and this. The work comments on the rich and complex world of country women, of a time of creativity and frugality that formed Helen’s early experience of Australia, of lost possibility, and of a colonial past and present, still so deeply problematic. New works including painting, installation, jewellery, drawings and objects feature in the exhibition alongside the first showing of the photographic work My Godmother’s House.

A major monograph with the publishing house Arnoldsche and the awarded German Book designer Alexandra Rusitschka accompanies the exhibition and is available from Object Shop.

Helen Britton, an exceptional Australian artist of international reputation, is the tenth artist in this exhibition series Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft. 

Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft is an initiative of the Australian Design Centre. The series aims to celebrate the achievements of Australia’s most iconic crafts practitioners, through a touring exhibition and a major monograph publication.

Living Treasures celebrates the work and practice of exceptional individuals who have demonstrated more than three decades of excellence in their chosen discipline.

Visit Helen Britton | The Story So Far website here