Elena Helfrecht
Elena is a visual artist working with photography, recently completing her MA in photography at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work revolves around the inner space and the phenomena of consciousness, emerging from an autobiographical context and opening up to the surreal and fantastic, at times grotesque. Interweaving memories, experiences, and imagination, she creates an inextricable narrative with multiple layers of meaning characterised by a visceral iconography. Growing up in the Bavarian countryside, the folklore and landscapes from her childhood are rooted in her heart and constantly influence her work, as does her love for Art History, Literature, and Psychology. In 2020, her work was nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award and selected as a finalist for the Sony World Photography Awards, HSBC Prix pour la Photographie, The Aftermath Project Grant, and as a winner of Camera Work hosted by Palazzo Rasponi 2. Source: https://dergreif-online.de/contributors/elena-helfrecht/
Plexus
‘Plexus’ is a photographic case study based on still lifes that emerge from inherited trauma and postmemory, exploring the family as an essential contributor to psychological and cultural processes across history. Following my grandmother’s death, I return to my family estate in Bavaria and use the house and its archive as stage and protagonists for an allegoric play.
In the process of reconnecting the fragmentary history of my female lineage, the term ‘re-membering’ becomes literal. Immersing myself into this story, I fill the gaps with dreams, associations, and imagined scenes to create a narrative transgressing personal and national boundaries. The objects and architecture of the house become parabolic proxies and open a gate between the past and the present.
Permeating the imagery is a figurative search for apparent reoccurrences in history, echoing my own repetition of my mother’s and grandmother’s behaviours. By confronting a past spanning across four generations, a renewed sense of identity provides ground for a detailed investigation of postmemory, mental health, war, and history. Source: https://elenahelfrecht.com/Plexus
I really enjoy Elena’s surreal project Plexus - it feeds my morbid curiosities in an artistic, eerie way. The images I am most drawn to is the pigeon heads; the circular framing with intersecting lines reminding me of a family tree. The snakes on the dolls house hints to an uncomfortable family situation.
