wet La Centrale Gallery, Montréal + A-Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada; It's Queer Up North, Manchester, 1998
wet is a lament to love, giving advice on how to remove those stubborn heartbreak stains. The endless trickling of spit and salt, a walk through rainfall ‘on stage’ and an erotic but traumatised text all seek to survive a journey through blood, sweat and tears.
Helena Goldwater Selected CV
Education
1990-92 Postgraduate Studies: Higher Diploma in Fine Art (Media), Slade School of Art, University College London
1986-89 BA Fine Art (1st Class Hons), Goldsmith's College, University of London
Nominated twice for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Visual Arts.
Exhibitions / Performances
2022 Zim-Zum: The Folding World, Patrick Heide Gallery, London
2022 The Portals Project, Part One: El Umbral - The Threshold, Bermondsey Project Space, London
2020-21 Action: A provisional history of the 90s, MACBA: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona
2020 Light Art Performance, 4th International Festival of Homar, Lorestan, Iran
2019 Performance with Leafa Wilson, MOKU, Raven Row, London
2018 gut flora, MOCA, London
2017 Nature Morte, Guildhall Art Gallery, London
2017 A Life in a Day with Helena Goldwater (1996, 20 mins), a film by Sarah Turner, The Showroom, London
2016 embed, Tempting Failure, London
2016 Hairline, 1st Morni Hills International Performance Art Biennial, Chandigarh, India
2015-16 Liberties, Collyer Bristow, London + The Exchange/Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2015 extractors, The Extractor Space/ Deptford X, London
2015 To Camera, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast Photo Festival
2014 The pleasure of small partings, The Extractor Space, London
2005-14 Hot Soak, including El Palomar, Barcelona, Spain; Performatorium, Regina, Canada
2012-13 With an Apple I Will Astonish, Large Glass, London
2013 Double Exposures, photoworks with Manuel Vason http://www.double-exposures.com/
2012 Once in a while it’s important to clear out your glory-hole, 1st Venice International Performance Art Week, Palazzo Bembo, Italy
2012 Bodies of Memory: Acts of Legacy, Tate Britain
2012 Performance Transition, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2011-16 Solo and group shows, Art First
2011 Reproductive Labour: Cinenova, The Showroom, London
2011 If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Cinenova and de Appel, Amsterdam
2011 Funnel of love, Archipelago, Café Gallery, London
2008 Curious Nature, Collyer Bristow, London + Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2007-15 Biennial Fundraisers, The Drawing Room, London
2007 Not tonight darling, I’m washing my hair, Smallbone of Devizes, London + Kent
2005 Lost and Found in Translation, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2004 Hortus, Spacex Gallery, Exeter + Liverpool Biennial
2003 Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Performance, Tate Gallery, Liverpool [+ Catalogue]
2001 cleanliness is next to godliness…but dirtiness is next to heaven, Dulwich Leisure Centre, London
From 1990-2000 I performed at venues including Western Front Gallery, Vancouver; La Centrale Gallery, Montréal; A-Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada; CCA, Glasgow; ICA, London; Sin Numero, Arte de Accion, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain; Camerawork Gallery, London. I was also a regular act at the club 'Duckie', Royal Vauxhall Tavern & ‘Duckie Dancehall’/’Artskool’, Connaught Rooms, London, plus invited to host/perform at a variety of benefits and clubs.
Publications/ about
2017 Online Interview, Jacksons Arts Supplies, https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2017/10/11/botanical-helena-goldwater/
2015 Drawing and Painting: Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists. Ed. Kate Wilson. Harper Collins, USA/Thames&Hudson, UK
2014 Double Exposures, photoworks with Manuel Vason. Live Art Development Agency/Intellect Books
2013 Nature Morte by Michael Petry. Thames&Hudson
2013 Emergency INDEX 2012
2012 Hybrid Body-Poetic Body: Venice International Performance Art Week: I, Vest and Page
2003 Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Performance. Ed. Adrian George, Tate Gallery Liverpool [Cat.]
2002 exposures. Ed. Manuel Vason, Lois Keidan, and Ron Athey. Black Dog Publishing
Texts/ by
2019 The grounded body: Performance Art and nature, 3rd International Festival of Homar, Iran
2016 Taxonomies of UK performance art: absence, eradication and reclamation, Live Art Almanac Vol 4, Live Art Development Agency/Oberon
2014 Tailor made remains: Wayne Lucas, The Extractor Space, London. Exhibition text
2012 Blank Promiscuity, St Pauls Project Group Show, London. Exhibition text
2006 8 artists try not to talk about art: Conversation with Amanda Sharp. Ed. Bridget Crone, Space/ Artquest, London
Also various catalogue texts and for Artscribe International in the 1990s.
TV/ Radio
2013 Living and Present: Laurie Anderson on Performance Art, BBC Radio 3, Cast Iron Radio http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039p1bz
Curator
2022 The Portals Project, Part One: El Umbral - The Threshold, Bermondsey Project Space, London. Co-curated with Lucía Imaz King, Wayne Lucas and Simon Vincenzi. [Cats.]
2018> Edge of an Era: Performance Art 1985-90. Co-curated with Rob La Frenais + Alex Eisenberg/In partnership with LADA.
2016 Glimpses of before: 1970s UK Performance Art, Study Guide, LADA/Queen Mary. http://1970s.thisisliveart.co.uk
2011-14 circuit, a platform for re/emerging artists, De Montfort University, Leicester