David CassMay 13, 2020

Spotlight on Helen Glassford

David CassMay 13, 2020

Art in a Time of Lockdown

Fife-based artist Helen Glassford introduces her lockdown series Intermittent • Constant

We’ve been hearing in the media of how the Earth has been afforded some breathing space in recent weeks, and we’d like to go one step further by suggesting that the same could also apply to artists. Though, maybe breathing is the wrong word (too suggestive of rest and calm, which is true for neither our planet nor our planet’s creative community) so perhaps it would be more fitting to suggest that just as the Earth has been offered a (very small) chance to repair and restore, so too have many artists found pockets of space to focus and rejuvenate.

By all accounts, artist Helen Glassford has been inexhaustible in recent weeks. Her latest body of work speaks of an electric creativity; of a maker deeply connected to her practice, and not scared to explore. In the artworks shown here (each approx. 20 x 20cm and created using mixed media on paper) she presents not only peaceful moments of sea and sky but also darker (often violent) scenes, reflective of the ups and downs of lockdown. Helen has included works from this series in the Artist Support Pledge – an initiative that we’d encourage you to check out.

Helen Glassford
7th May 2020 | Day 47

This project was conceived to enable me to keep doing what I know and love best at a time of huge uncertainty. The worldwide threat of Covid-19 has affected us all in ways we could never have imagined only a few months ago. Our understanding of freedom has been uprooted and shaken and change in our lives has taken place at an alarming rate. Along with the feeling of futility in the face of something greater than us we have to adapt and alter. We face social reconstruction in order to safeguard lives. We are experiencing fear towards something that is intangible yet lethal. We cannot meet, face to face, our loved ones, our friends and acquaintances, all those people who add value and validate our everyday lives.

In response to this change my mind has turned to the human need for the constant and the routine – for at times like these we are told that routine is good for us. It helps us structure our day and our thoughts. It makes us feel safe.

But at times of stress and change this can be harder to achieve. Our minds are interrupted by myriad concerns – about health and physical threat, future work and finances, home-schooling... Normal concentration levels are difficult to maintain. Despite our need for the constant, we may find that the intermittent becomes the new normal. Might this be better in the long run? Some of us need change to thrive. The surprise and intermittent are qualities of life I relish and to them I feel profound gratitude. Perhaps exactly these qualities are the most beautiful and enlightening. If everything was expected and predicted would it continue to be valued?

This project has gained momentum over the six weeks (so far) of Lockdown and has gradually developed in response to it. Even the word ‘Lockdown’ summons psychological connotations of being trapped, being unable to reach the usual places where we go for a sense of ease. But escape, whether mental or physical, is often essential. My wish has been to create windows into that part of the physical world we cannot visit just now, to act as visual aids that allow us to venture wherever our minds will take us. Memory plays a huge part in all of this. To gift the sense of the drama and beauty of the far-flung places in Scotland, and to tell stories of the liberating adventures in remote places is my goal.

The well-known intermittent qualities of the Scottish weather will forever be a source of inspiration for me; in all their gloom and glory. It is predictable in its unpredictability.

I aim to reflect the intensity of our situation in each of these paintings: whether directly with the suggestion of foreboding weather, or mindfully with calming bands of colour allowing breathing spaces for the mind to rest. Glimpses of sea aim to give hope, along with the scarred rocky shores – a suggestion of times once lived and survived. Each painting is in mixed media, sometimes graphite to start, acrylic and pastel. Some lighter in touch, others more menacing and gestural. For me, this body of work reflects the times we are in whilst also offering a piece of Scottish escapism to ease the spirit.