Helen Braun

View Helen’s recent exhibition “between the sinister and the sublime” Catalogue here

“From towering forests, to fuzzy bread mould, crack sprouted seeds to lush tree fern valleys, microscopic organisms to leaf litter crawl and estuaries of everything, we are not apart. The entwine of the natural world evolves; a cast of shadows and reflections, languages brittle soft flowing still, insistently informing my makings. Ambiguous cuttings of black paper, clear sharp glass, translucent parings. Reflective musings to the clash and caper of nature, where beauty and horror sit side by side, the sinister and the sublime holding embrace within the constancy of change.”

Materiality as a base for creative possibility has long been an important component within Helen Braun’s art practice, commencing as a ceramic artist at CIT in Melbourne. After some years as a studio potter, Helen returned to study in Visual Arts and an Honours degree in Fine Art Sculpture at Monash University. Working out of her suburban garden studio based in Melbourne, Helen has consistently exhibited her work in many solo exhibitions and numerous shows over a period of more than four decades.

Helen’s conceptual works evolve from her deep joy awe and love of nature and serendipitously, expanded with the acquisition of a clutch of repurposed materials, ideal for relating her responsive curiosities. Further lines of unique gesture and narrative unfolded. Fine paper parings, printmaking, laboratory glassware, materials imbued of fragility and strength, as medium for intricate installation assemblage works. Compositions for drawing subtle contours of correlation, to the innate strength and fragility of the natural world.