Helen Eberhardie Dunn
Helen has 2D and 3D work in both private and public collections. From the classical to the purely conceptual, lyrical to discordant, always deeply personal, Helen’s work documents her experiments in conscious and physical awareness. Her artistic practice is subversive as it counters events currently constricting the expansion of human consciousness and compassion.
Born in England, Helen considers Colorado her home. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, she is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and recipient of international honors and awards. The 2004 Bursary from the Arts Council of Great Britain awarded for her traveling installation ’108 Crystal Lotuses’, brought her to Colorado where the installation was featured at the UCCS Gallery of Contemporary Art to rave reviews. She was subsequently awarded a year long Fellowship at the University of Colorado's Heller Center.
Helen is primarily an installation and performance artist who uses film and sound to explore haptic awareness. Digital media in combination with drawing are used to self evaluate and identify threads of working practice. Helen is also an accomplished classical sculptor who trained at Wimbledon School of Art in London. As a student of Helen Chadwick at the RCA, she explored combining carefully crafted carved and cast objects with food, hair, found objects, film, sound, performance and installation culminating in the series of performances ‘Tanjoki/Treebirth’ which took place in both Kyoto, Japan and various locations in the UK.
Over the years Helen completed a series of private and public commissions in both stone and bronze before returning to more conceptual and digital approaches to manipulating material, time and space. Her current series of works, ‘Bone Chimes/Body Fragments’ involve sound flows, vitrified porcelain, animal hair, silk and film projection as a moving light source. Searching for the shapes of air and water ‘Interruptions’ reflect moments in time, a concept Helen calls ‘Interventionist Landscape’. This includes an ongoing series of ‘Slow Videos’ made with the intent to develop feelings of unease in the viewer in order to detach expectations.
Education
1994 - 1996
Royal College of Art MFA
1991 - 1994
Wimbledon School of Art BFA
Selected Awards /Residencies/ Fellowships/ Honors/ Affiliations
2020
2019
2018 - present
2016
2015 - present
2011
2010
2009
2008
2001 - 2005
2004
2004
2003 - present
1996
1989
Residency, Think 360, Penrose Elementary School
Grant Award - Exo-Sanctuaries
Rough Ruby Arts Collective: http://www.roughrubyartscollective.com/
Grant Award - Pikes Peak Arts Council - Dartmoor Arts
Think 360 Arts, Denver, CO https://think360arts.org/artists/hellen-eberhardie-dunn/
Residency, Colorado Springs School, Colorado Springs, CO.
Residency, Green Box Arts, Green Mountain Falls, CO
Fellowship, Heller Center For The Arts And Humanities, U.C.C.S., CO.
Grant Award - BluePrints Project
Grant Awards - Park City Arts Council for public commissions
Grant Award – Arts Council of Great Britain - UCCS Residency
Residency, Heller Center For The Arts And Humanities, U.C.C.S., CO.
Royal Society of Sculptors, MRSS https://sculptors.org.uk/artists/helen-dunn
Scholarship - Royal College of Art -Ray Finnis Exchange to Kyoto Gaidai, Japan
Grant Award - Prince’s Youth Business Trust - Solo Exhibition, Elementals
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016
2004
1996
‘Secret Body, Secret Self’, Manitou Arts Center, solo invitational exhibit of sculpture and painting
‘108 Crystal Lotuses, A Prayer for Peace’, International Touring Installation funded by The Arts Council of Great Britain and put together during UCCS residency. This interactive installation was set up and filmed at five locations in the US and UK including GOCA at UCCS, New Hall College, Cambridge and The Art Garage, Fenstanton
‘Sound Mandala’, installation and performance at the Royal College of Art, with
accompanying sound album
‘Tanjoki/Treebirth performance cycle’, Kyoto Gaidai -Japan, RCA -London, Protest Site -Newbury Bypass,, The Fridge- London
‘Chakra Experiment’, Plunge Club, Brixton, London. Tanjoki/Treebirth performance
cycle
‘Hold Me’, solo performance, Newbury Bypass Protest Site, Tanjoki/Treebirth
performance cycle
‘Cow Prayer’, The Fridge, Brixton, London. Tanjoki/Treebirth performance cycle
1995
‘Bunny’s Last Trip’, Tanjoki/ Treebirth Cyclle, Hyde Park London, filmed by the BBC
‘Prayer for Happiness’, Kyoto Gaidai Gallery, Kyoto, Japan. Tanjoki/Treebirth
performance cycle
1995
‘Elementals’, Crispen Hall, Street, Somerset also shown in London by Dorota Rychlik artist agent
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020
2019
2011
2009
2008
1999
1994
1989
‘Bone Chimes’, Faculty Exhibition, PPCC, Colorado Springs, CO
‘Sand and Ice’, Slow Video, Armory Week, New York
’Secret Self’ Broughton House Gallery, Cambridge
‘I Love You More’, ’Teach Me, Show Me’, Faculty Exhibit’, GOCA, UCCS, Colorado Springs, CO
‘End of Night’, ’AKA’, Faculty Exhibit, GOCA, UCCS
‘BluePrints Project’, FAC Modern Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO
‘Tantric Heart’, The Collection of Women's Art, New Hall College, Cambridge, U.K.
‘Chod’ installation, Cooltan Arts, Brixton, London also shown in Cannizaro Park,
Wimbledon, London
Public Works
2005
2004
2003
2000 - 2002
‘Calyx’, carved polar jade, and cast bronze cement blocks, Kimball Arts Center, Park City, Utah
‘Flamebird’, bronze, granite, Swaner Nature Preserve, Park City, Utah
‘Wing’, bronze, sandstone , Canyons Resort, Park City, Utah
‘Snow Spirit’, National Abilities Center, Park City, Utah, USA
Selected Private Collections/ Commissions
Secret Self, Acrylic painting Series, ’Lilith’, cast bronze- single edition, ’Bee Head’, cast bronze - single edition,’River Heads Series’, carved limestone, ’Goddess Marble’, carved marble, ‘Vesta’, carved limestone