Helen Carnac

Helen Carnac's work explores the explicit connections between material, process, and maker.  Throughout her practice, she has worked with various materials but has developed a particular expertise in combining vitreous enamel with metal.  Helen is fascinated by how one material becomes known through another. Understanding the attributes of a material; density, malleability, patina, corrosion, tensile strength, and oxidisation allows her to test the attributes of another. In doing so, Helen develops new ways in which materials co-exist and support each other.  She investigates how those materials change together over time and in different environments.

 

Having previously been based in London, Helen now lives and works in Somerset, UK. Setting up her studio in the early 1990s, Helen develops projects using methodologies that are rooted in an acute awareness of physical location, place and working practices. Helen has worked extensively in the UK, Europe and USA. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of Artquest's advisory panel.

 

The artist's work is held in several collections including the V&A (UK), Enamel Art Foundation, (USA), Rotasa Foundation, (USA), RAM (USA) and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada).