Helen Bodycomb

Mosaic Artist Helen Bodycomb

Detritus Exhibition

By

DETRITUS

7th March – 7th April 2013

PUBLIC INN Cnr Mostyn & Barker Streets, Castlemaine and
RE-PUBLIC 26 Templeton Street, Castlemaine

In addition to giving 2 artists talks at Public Inn (Wednesday 20 March 3pm and Friday 22 March 3pm), Helen will open her Lot 19 studio to visitors on Tuesday 19 and Thursday 21 March from 11am–2pm.

See the Castlemaine State Festival Program Map B, for Lot 19 location details.

DETRITUS is an exhibition about the redundancy of items in nature and in culture. It follows the theme of Memento mori (remember you are going to die), which was widely celebrated in Roman mosaics and across many cultures since. Artist Helen Bodycomb regards DETRITUS as commemorating the ephemeral beauty of life, not the horror of its loss.

Memento Mori

Naples Archaeological Museum, Italy,
Pompeii, Middle of the first century AD
memento-mori-mosaic

 

“Constituting the emblema of the flooring in a triclinium, this mosaic, with its naturalistic depiction of a skull and the tools of a mason, expresses allegorically the transience of life and the impending nature of death. It is the libella, the level, from which hangs the plumb-line -the instrument that serves to control the levelling of a construction- that symbolises all equality: from its ends hang in perfect equilibrium the symbols of power (the sceptre and the royal purple) and on the right, the sack and the stick, symbols of poverty. The skull -with a line of darker tesserae outlining the sutures of the cranium- and the level -an instrument that we known only through depictions from the Roman period, shown here with clearly illustrated bronze elements and its wooden structure- underline the intent to depict them with precision.” MUSEO GALILEO, ITALY

 
 

THE ARTIST

Helen Bodycomb is a full time artist, highly regarded internationally as a specialist in the contemporary practice of the ancient medium of mosaic. She predominantly works on commissioned sculptural and fine mosaic artworks for clients from the public sector and for private collections. Helen is currently completing a new sculpture commissioned by The City of Melbourne for ArtPlay. FUTURESCAPE will be installed at Birrarung Marr, in the centre of Melbourne, in June 2013.

Following her current exhibition DETRITUS, Helen is looking forward to commencing a new body of un-commissioned works on transparent glass, featuring the wing scale patterns of locally indigenous butterflies and moths. She will be referencing photographs taken by former Victorian State Governor and part-time local resident Sir John Landy, which John has kindly made available to Helen. John has documented over 400 local species in Fryerstown, some of them still unnamed and unclassified.

Helen’s mosaic artworks are meticulously constructed tessera by tessera, from fine marbles and Venetian glass smalti. All materials are cut to shape using traditional stone and mosaic hand tools, and are placed using medical tweezers.

Helen Bodycomb