Helen Sargeant West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
  Back to profiles

Helen Sargeant is an artist based in the UK, her interdisciplinary, collaborative practice explores the representation of the maternal body.

Helen explores her personal and political identity as a woman, artist, and mother. She draws upon the female body as a site of memory, trauma, transformation, vulnerability, power, and decay. Art projects have included investigating maternal ambivalence, maternal labour, the politics of care, the ethics of collaborating with children, and maternal mental health.

Paintings focus on the swollen torso, engorged breasts, and vulva, to process and remember embodied experiences of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. Sharp gestural lines, repetitive patterns, decoration, and motifs including breasts, eyes, spirals, safety pins, flowers, and grids draw the viewer into her works. Recent work includes drawing with hand- stitch onto found domestic textiles such as pillows, sheets, t-towels, serviettes, and tablecloths.

Artwork

Nursing is waiting , Hand stitched cotton thread on found domestic textile, 2022

Details

her breast milk.....her super power , Japanese Thread on Pillow Cases, 2021

Details

Away with the fairies, Cotton thread Japanese and French on found linen cloth, 2022

Details

Rage, Rage, Rage , Hand Stitched Cotton Thread on Cotton Serviette, 2022

Details

Breast Motif: Three , Hand Stitched Cotton on Cyanotype Printed on Fabric, 2022

Details

Breast Motif: Two , Hand Stitched Cotton on Cyanotype Printed on Fabric, 2022

Details

Breast Motif: One , Hand Stitched Cotton on Cyanotype Printed on Fabric, 2022

Details

A scarf for Frida Khalo , Hand Stitched Cotton Thread on Wool, 2022

Details

Don't Cut The Woman Out Of Me , Cotton Thread, Hand Dyed Advocado Cotton Sheet , Glass Beads, Pillows, Plinth, 2021

Details

Killing Tender Time , Hand and machine stitch on cabbage dyed cotton sheet with silk and cotton thread,, 2022

Details

Dummy , Watercolour Painting, 2021

Details

Magic Boobs , Painting, 2021

Details

Love and Loss, Painting, 2017

Details

The First Cut Is The Deepest , Watercolour and Pencil, 2019

Details

First Born , Watercolour and Pencil on Paper, 2019

Details

Womb, Tomb, Room , Collage/ Drawing, 2019

Details

The Fountain: Martian Skies , Drawing , Ink on Household Paint Sample Paper, 2015

Details

The Fountain: 5C, Drawing , Ink on Household Paint Sample Paper, 2015

Details

The Fountain: 6D , Drawing , Ink on Household Paint Sample Paper, 2015

Details

Stay Close To Me, Collage/ Drawing, 2016

Details

Man-Sized , Collage/ Drawing, 2016

Details

Protector , Collage/Drawing, 2016

Details

Umbilical, Collage/ Drawing, 2015

Details

The Soldier On The Bench , Collage/ Drawing, 2015

Details

"Don't Scribble Me Out" , Collage/ Drawing, 2015

Details

Cat Mother , watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

Bumps & Bunnies , watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

Dreamer & Mischievous Kittens, watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

The Lost Daughter 4/4, watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

The Lost Daughter 3/4, watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

The Lost Daughter 2/4, watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

The Lost Daughter 1/4, watercolour and pencil on cotton rag paper, 2021

Details

Projects and exhibitions

  Details  

Play & Compassion

25/03/2023 — ongoing

Play and Compassion is the theme of this multidisciplinary group exhibition curated by Georgie White Winter and Ruth Batham.

Kingshill House, Dursley, Gloucestershire, UK Details

An Artist And A Mother, Edited by Tara Carpenter Estranger, Kaylan Buteyn, Heidi Moller Somsen

07/03/2023 — ongoing

An Artist and a Mother is a book of visual artworks and essays that speak to the diverse ways artists balance creative life with the demands of mothering. It includes thirty seven essays describing the work of thirty-nine international artists and an art collective, as well as a resource guide with books, journals, magazines, organizations, and...

[Read more]
Pusbished by Demeter Press, Canada Details

Procreate Project: Archive

21/02/2023 — ongoing

"The Lost Daughter" poster shown in the Modern Art Oxford Yard as part of the Procreate Project: Archive.

Modern Art, Oxford Details

60 Drawings + 10

16/06/2022 — 11/08/2022

Sixty Drawings + Ten explores, defines, and celebrates the locality and discipline of drawing in its diverse forms. Curated by Curtis Magri and Gary James Williams. 60 artists, from a variety of different disciplines who exhibited in an exhibition in 2012 in Manchester, were invited once more to submit a drawing alongside 10 new artists invited...

[Read more]
Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery, Rawtenstall Details

MAKE ART/NOT SAD

25/05/2022 — 05/06/2022

Make Art / Not Sad is an on-line exhibition by Kim Hopson, Kelly Marshall, Jen McGowan, Margaux Portron and Helen Sargeant. This exhibition explores creativity, care and the maternal identity in relation to mental health and wellbeing. The artists all make work that stems from their personal experiences of being mothered and mothering. They...

[Read more]
Maternal Art - https://maternalart.com/make-art-not-sad Details

Mythical Mother

09/09/2021 — 30/09/2021

An online exhibition curated by Georgie White Winter in partnership with Spilt Milk Gallery. Exhibiting artists: Shweta Bist, Michelle Gallagher, Marica Michael, Nadia Nizwamudin, Helen Sargeant, Celine Sheridan, Lynsey Watson, Georgie White Winter, Malineh Zafarnezhad

Today the mother is tied up in myth and mystery. If we are to understand...

[Read more]
Spilt Milk Gallery - www.spiltmilkgallery.com/exhibitions/mythical-mother Details

My mummy is beautiful (after Y.O)

11/06/2021 — 27/03/2021

A solo exhibition of drawings, paintings, books, animation, and textile works by Helen Sargeant.

Linden Art Gallery, Hebden Bridge Details
Interested in
Artist TalkArts vacancyCommissionCompetitionConferenceExhibitionJournal/PublicationMentoringParticipatory projectResidencyWorkshop
Media
Art writingArtists’ booksCollageDrawingFilm / VideoLive artPaintingPhotographySocially Engaged PracticeTextTextile
Other keywords
EnvironmentExperimentalFeminismFigurativeIdentityMemorySite-specific