Mapping Spaces: Helen Ireland

‘I work on two levels. I occupy my conscious mind with things to do, lines to draw, movements to organise, rhythms to invent. In fact, I keep myself occupied. But that allows other things to happen which I'm not controlling... the more I exercise my conscious mind, the more open the other things may find that they can come through’  - Bridget Riley

In this writing by Bridget Riley we recognize the importance of her conscious mind and the practicality and physicality in the process of making which enables new forms and ideas to emerge.

This method is at the centre of Helen Ireland’s work and yet the real subject of her work is ambiguous, maybe not even possible to describe in words. In Helen’s working process we witness the endless build up of lines and colours, then the revisions and re-workings until finally something new emerges. Her work has always had a sense of climate, weather and atmosphere but it is also intrinsically linked to the process and plastic qualities of painting. Her use of mapping, using grids, overlaying colour, staining, obliterating, working and reworking a painting whether on paper, canvas or wood has remained constant since she started painting thirty years ago. Her work is constructed and edited as it is made. Through the process of making and the use of materials something occurs that distils the initial starting point. Whether the point of departure is recognisable or non- recognisable; ultimately it is the structure, the balance, the edit, the unexplained, the chance and order of finding and discovering visual information that is the work. She draws with colour and practices endlessly like a musician might rehearse or an actor might learn their lines. She enjoys order but it is the chance elements of marbling with Indian Ink and water that creates the individuality of these works, each painting is unique and ideas never repeat exactly.

As Helen says herself, ‘in reworking the paintings inevitably change will occur and marks fade in and out; some stay and others become lost’ Ireland is interested in the chance ideas of John Cage; he stated, ‘Some people think I have given up making choices, but my choices consist of choosing which questions to ask, how many lines, long or short, which tool to use, which colour, how to locate the marks on the plate or the plates on the page’ these ideas seems to suggest a living, breathing artwork that comes about making decisions, applying rules, then solving problems and reworking until there is some visual correctness, balance and discord.

Artistic influences are essential and keep her in dialogue with the greatness of contemporary women artists. Bridget Riley, Prunella Clough, Eva Hesse, Tess Jaray, Agnes Martin are artists that she shares a deep affinity with. It is apparent that the influence of these artists that she has admired, read and taken in is real, heart felt and internalised. We are made from our experiences and influences. In a more tangible and real way her work is influenced by what she sees with her own eyes. These shapes of colour and light have been witnessed and are often the remembered qualities of fleeting moments where she has looked at through grids, networks, structures that are both man made and organic. An idea: The particular coolness of a pink London sky, the visual shift between light and dark or a warm pink to a grey green.

She uses geometry, and ruling pens loaded with diluted acrylic; this started from spending many years in a graphic design studio using a parallel motion board. There is an interesting accuracy and specificity to a ruler drawn line in opposition to a stain or wash of colour. It appears to be these opposites in constant dialogue with one another that creates the rhythm, pattern, tension and ultimate quietness to these paintings that is appealing. By using opposite colours, considering the saturation and dilution of colour Helen can play with the space and flatness within a work. The grid seems to link and unify the surface whilst the colour, tonality and painterly application in parts, breaks the conformity and makes each painting unique. Helen has worked with water based medium for many years and enjoys the opacity and transparency of colour on paper. Helen’s paintings are made on heavy weight watercolour paper or on Japanese plywood. The beautiful, fine surface of the plywood allows her to play with the pattern of the wood grain in dialogue with her implied water patterns and marbled surfaces. It is particularly beautiful to see how these subtle marbled and painted layers work in counterpoint with each other. Helen’s work needs to be seen as these images are hand-made; the surface quality and tactility of colour and can only be witnessed through direct observation.

- Andrew Carter 2024