HELEN HELEN PPYNOR YNOR ‘The Accidental Primate’
‘The Accidental Primate’
20.11. – 17.12.2014
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The Accidental Primate ‘The Accidental Primate’ presents a series of photographic works exploring human-animal relations through an exploration of human-bat connection. The work extends an ongoing investigation into the materiality of human and non-human bodies and the entanglements that forge our mutual futures. The accidents of evolution create improbable solutions to the problem of survival, whilst the human-made accidents of taxonomy assign species within arbitrary hierarchies of order. An Australian scientist has proposed a largely unsupported theory that the macrobats, including Sydney’s grey-headed flying foxes, have been misclassified and should rightfully be placed amongst the primates, based on a synergy between haemoglobin structures. This unlikely theory provided inspiration for a meditation on interspecies connectivity - the accidents, collisions and collusions that throw humans and bats together. We are deeply entangled, even if not through close genetic legacy through our physical proximity in urban spaces, our ecological dependence on bats as long-distance pollinators, the threat we pose to bat survival through habitat loss, the emotional bonds that form between orphaned or rehabilitating bats and their human carers, the viruses that trace invisible and sometimes lethal paths between bats and humans, reminding us quietly of our cellular relatedness, and the highly particular place bats occupy as agents of the sinister in the Western imagination, storytelling tropes and myths. The fates of humans and bats collide. The Accidental Primate seeks to mime these multi-layered relationships through a dialogue between parachutes and bats, fabric and skin, that variously creases, collapses, folds purposefully, or billows outwards with the violences of wind or implied collisions. Helen Pynor, November 2014
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
2014, Pigment print, face-mounted on acrylic with shadow frame 80 x 120 cm, Edition of 5 + 1AP, $5,500 53 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 1AP, $3,600
Terms of sale of all works shown: 10% deposit on reservation. Balance on collection. Prices as of November 2014. All prices listed may change without notice. All prices include GST.
‘The Accidental Primate 1’
‘The Accidental Primate 6’
‘The Accidental Primate 2’
‘The Accidental Primate 7’
‘The Accidental Primate 3’
‘The Accidental Primate 8’
‘The Accidental Primate 4’
‘The Accidental Primate 9’
‘The Accidental Primate 5’
‘The Accidental Primate 10’
My foxy darling Helen Pynor’s series: The Accidental Primate Stephanie Britton This is a body of work investigating connections between bats and humans; brave proposition considering that the very word ‘bat’ conjures something from another sphere of being, a domain where few humans feel at home, a place where wings beat the air, speeding bodies that hurl themselves at you in the gloom only to magically avoid colliding with you, and just as suddenly disappear into thin air leaving you with an experience of having been visited by an apparition. We may be connected, in the sense that we are connected with whales, chameleons or giant cuttlefish, by a bunch of genetic markers, that tell us that even the most outlandishly different fellow organisms share many of our characteristics. Whales have the advantage of being majestic beings living in the ocean, with a well-known body of folklore and stories which tend to magnify their aura. Bats are found in our cities, like rats and cockroaches, and in most Western cultures they have been more abhorred than loved. Their store of folklore covers vampires, bad omens, darkness, belfries, rabies and now lyssavirus. They have sharp teeth, and in the 18th Century an Italian scientist-priest proved to himself without any doubt that they navigate by hearing rather than sight, a pronouncement that earned him virtual excommunication… after all, this was not possible, it would break the laws of creation.
In Chinese, Tongan, Mayan, Cherokee and Apache cultures, however, there were different views; it was a lucky omen to see a bat, and images of bats were frequently found on insignia, ceremonial clothing and on artefacts. As the modern world encroaches more and more on the natural world, bats are now close and personal in many cities across the planet. They are classified as either megabats or microbats, and Australia uniquely is home to a remarkable megabat, and the world’s largest, the flying fox. A protected species, it is the most visible group. As their habitat disappears they migrate to great colonies in suburbs, botanic gardens, and parks where they cause damage to trees and plants, as well as transform the look and smell of the well-tended surrounds with their pungent droppings. There are calls for culls, and calls for calm, and city councils perform a delicate balancing act, often resulting in relocating the colonies to someone else’s backyard. Flying foxes are classified as megabats. The majority of bats globally are classified as microbats. Suddenly we are learning about them and questioning how their image came to be so different across cultures. When you compare them with the countless other species on the planet, bats are different on so many scores that it is hardly surprising they have had a mixed reception.
Bats come in around 1200 different species, and range in size from smaller than a thumbnail to a flying fox weighing several kilos with a wingspan of over a metre. They are one of the most numerous mammals on the planet and are found in almost every country. Megabats have excellent vision, while microbats are virtually blind. They are the only mammal on earth that flies. Their wings are totally different from those of other flying creatures such as birds. They have fingers, but they are unlike any fingers you could imagine, impossibly elongated and with bones of incredible lightness. Their method of flight is unlike that of dragonfly, eagle or bee or any other flying creature. Leonardo da Vinci recognised them as the ultimate model for a flying machine, a reputation that has gradually been enhanced over the past 500 years. The shape and structure of their wings is perfectly adapted for lift, speed and manoeuvreability partly because their ‘arms’ can move independently and also because the membrane stretched between those long fingers is both flexible and strong. To cap it all off, the species includes a group of microbats with brains which are uniquely adapted to perceive their surroundings and hunt for food through the employment of ultrasound. These insectivores can echolocate a flying moth, grab it and gobble it down in a millionth of a second. And the thought of ear-splitting sound (inaudible to us and most of the rest of the living world) emitted by a multitude of bats on the wing and being bounced rapidly back from thousands of mouths to thousands of ears, makes it seem a wonder these creatures are not deaf (and mad) as well as blind.
After two centuries of scientific blackout these wondrous masters of the air and sky are now well and truly back on the agenda, this time in connection with the functioning of a brain which can process information at this outlandish speed. As with other flying creatures, like bees, they have excited the interest of the US Military which, following Pearl Harbour, attempted to enlist their services as suicide bombers against the Japanese navy. As part of this mission the little creatures were famously harnessed up with trigger-fine incendiary bombs with instructions to fly to the Japanese coast and roost on the undersides of buildings near navy installations. Despite the total failure of this and a range of other unorthodox experiments with animals and insects, a new generation of military scientists today are at work investigating the brains of bats, hoping to unpick their uncanny ability to locate things in space by triangulation in order to develop machines through which humans are able to do the same. In the meantime, as loss of habitat and climate change together raise threats to the species’ survival, the importance of bats’ roles in seed dispersal and pollination in every country on earth makes any threat to their extinction a threat to ecological balance. This crucial role is not widely understood. Like honey bees, megabats such as our flying foxes feed on nectar, but they are also fruit eaters and responsible for the distribution of seeds of thousands of native trees, including rainforest trees and plants, essential in the genetic diversity and thus survival of these forests.
Despite their ability to fan themselves with their wings to keep cool, recent record temperatures can prove too much. In the heatwave of the last days of 2013 in Australia when temperatures soared to over 40C across southern Queensland, an estimated 100,000 bats expired. Like so many sad bundles of black membrane, their bodies piled up in huge numbers, while human communities who were also challenged in a range of ways by the hottest year on record were warned not to attempt to dispose of the stinking carcasses. Helen Pynor’s extraordinary body of work, The Accidental Primate, addresses the bat of today. Still up in the sky, this time it is depicted as isolated from the familiar black-edged colony of silhouettes high in the trees. Instead, she shows us a parcel of energy hurling itself through space, a small parcel of life in defiance of the threats that surround it. The membranes of its wings are alternately tautly stretched or folded around its trunk or limbs in ways that tell of its options – to use its speed and agility to surf the air in an extraordinary series of attitudes and escape from the threats to its survival, or to tumble and spiral downwards. As if mirroring its fate, a series of companion images depict rogue parachutes falling slowly, without the tension of weight, into incoherently billowing and bundled forms; they tumble, tension lines floating and tangling in the air currents. The dark lines of the bound seams in the fine cloth echo but are outshone by the exquisite branching patterns formed by blood vessels in the bat wings.
The shapes made by the bunching cloth are a strange corollary to the shapes of the bats and their eccentric body language. But there is a sense of purpose defeated in the way that the noble parachute, an artefact of human ingenuity and skill and another of da Vinci’s inventions, is floating, lost and victim to the winds and the inevitability of an ignominious end. What was the rescue mission that it failed to accomplish? There is a contentious scientific school of thought today that offers bats through a haemoglobin connection an entrée to a new classification as a primate. Correct or not, this suggests for the first time in Western thought that a bat and a human are indeed more connected than we thought possible. Pynor has worked in liminal zones before, collaborating with artist Peta Clancy on a major project dealing with the emotional dynamics of human heart transplant communities, where they succeeded in bringing pigs’ hearts back to beating in the gallery. Originally trained as scientist, Pynor’s research into the uncertain boundary lines between life and death takes her on an odyssey that includes philosophy, psychology, chemistry, medical science and more. One of the pioneer artists at the edge of new modes of art, Pynor is able to offer broad philosophical views on the many points at which the human and animal worlds intersect and their occurrences in scientific and medical research as well as in the realms of psychology, ethics and animal rights.
Her research for The Accidental Primate brought her into contact with a local community of people whose lives are passionately dedicated to the wellbeing and survival of bats in their vulnerabilities to global ecological collapse. The dedication with which a carer feeds and emotionally nurtures a whole clutch of tiny orphan bat babies to maturity is rewarded not only by witnessing the developing bat-human bonds, but also in their return to the wild when they are ready to leave. Pynor has gone against the current public vilification of the grey-headed flying fox by ‘falling in love’ with the personality, wild nature and social structure of the species based on her recognition of its important role as a keeper of ecological balance. The images and meditations of The Accidental Primate embrace the corporeality of the animal: not just the more familiar aspects of its fur and dog-like snout but also the grand arabesque of scallops and curves described by the arms, hands and fingers. Instead of the conventional depiction of the animal as a baroque pair of wings, we are offered aspects defiantly selected to be almost impossible to reconcile with any familiar reading. It is as if we are seeing inside the mind of the individual animal; getting glimpses of what it might be thinking, what it might be attempting to do. In turn, questions arise about whether it is capable of exulting in its supreme aeronautical powers; whether it is conscious of its capacity to out-manoeuvre any man-made flying machine or whether its motion is part of the flight of desperation; a movement as moving as the mournful lost parachute slowly descending to the earth.
The essay of 1974 ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ by philosopher Thomas Nagel posed the question whether it is possible to get under the skin of another person and into their consciousness in order to see the world as they see it. Forty years later we might wonder whether Nagel’s choice of the bat to demonstrate a seemingly unbridgeable alienation from things human is still a useful one. As science works towards the holy grail of the understanding of consciousness, the possibility that it may also exist in animals starts to look not only likely but inevitable. Pynor’s selection of the bat to explore this question is a stroke of genius. November 2014 Stephanie Britton AM is a writer based in Byron Bay, Australia. She is the founding Executive Editor of Artlink magazine and produced many issues themed on art dealing with ecology and human-animal connections. "What is it like to be a bat?" Thomas Nagel, first published in The Philosophical Review in October 1974.
Education 2010 Doctor of Philosophy, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney 1993 Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney - Sculpture, Installation, Photography 1989 Art Photography Certificate, National Art School, Sydney 1987 Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours), Macquarie University, Sydney – Cell and Molecular Biology Solo Exhibitions 2014 2013 2012 2011 2011 2011 2011 2010 2009 2009 2008 2008 2007 2006 2005 1996 1994 1994 1993
The Accidental Primate Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney The Body is a Big Place Galerija Kapelica Ljubljana, Slovenia. Collaboration with Peta Clancy. Curated by Jurij Krpan The Life Raft Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Milk Australian Centre for Photography Sydney Breath GV Art London The Body is a Big Place Performance Space Sydney. Collaboration with Peta Clancy. Curated by Bec Dean The Body is a Big Place Leonardo Electronic Almanac. Collaboration with Peta Clancy. Curated by Vince Dziekan Liquid Ground Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Swelling Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne Milk Sydney College of the Arts Gallery Milk Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Love Letter Chez Robert France. Web-based installation. Curated by Michel Delacroix red sea blue water Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne Breathing Shadows Harrison Galleries Sydney Shadowbreath Linden-St Kilda Contemporary Arts Centre Melbourne Defence Artspace Sydney Worth It Pendulum Sydney The Body Crypta Selenium Sydney Untitled installation 144 Cleveland Street Sydney
Group Exhibitions 2014 Vanishing Entities London Science Week Limewharf, Vyner Street London. Curated by Christiana Kazakou Berlin-Sydney Galerie Patrick Ebensperger Berlin. Curated by Dominik Mersch Encyclopedia Galactica GV Art London. Curated by Sophie Kosmaoglou and Frances Sampayo The Mirror (Berlin Reflection) Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney. Curated by Dominik Mersch 2013 TEA/Super-Connect National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Taichung. Curated by Shu-Min Lin Art and Science as the Conjectured Possible National Centre for Contemporary Arts Kaliningrad, Russia. Curator D.Bulatov Synapse: A Selection ISEA2013 – 19th International Symposium of Electronic Art Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Curated by the Australian Network for Art and Technology Oscillator Science Gallery Dublin. Curated by Douglas Repetto and Stefan Hutzler Brains: The Mind as Matter Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester Curated by Marius Kwint Nature Reserves GV Art London. Curated by Tom Jeffreys The Body as Evidence The Gordon Museum King’s College London Art and Science GV Art London. Curated by Robert Devcic Diverse Gatherings No Format London. Curated by Matthew Wood 2012 CyberArts 2012 Prix Ars Electronica OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria Brains: The Mind as Matter The Wellcome Collection London and London tube stations. Curated by Marius Kwint Time and Vision, Australia Council for the Arts - London Studio 20-Year Anniversary Bargehouse London. Curator P. Bayley Controversy: The Power of Art Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Victoria, Australia. Curated by Vivien Gaston The Body is a Big Place video The Centre for Tropical Medicine Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Curated by Danielle Olsen Polymath GV Art London. Curated by Robert Devcic and Jonathan Hutt 5 Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship, Finalist exhibition Sydney College of the Arts Galleries. 2011 Art-Science GV Art London. Curated by Robert Devcic & Arthur Miller William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize Finalist Exhibition Monash Gallery of Art Melbourne Trick of the Light Core Gallery London. Curated by Nick Kaplony Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photographic Award Finalist Exhibition Gold Coast City Art Gallery Queensland, Australia Art Stage Singapore Representing Dominik Mersch Gallery
2010 Brainstorm GV Art London. Curated by Robert Devcic Hands On Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Sydney. Curated by Cash Brown Summer Exhibition Royal Academy of Arts London Experiments on Plant Hybridization Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne. Curated by Drew Pettifer & Gillian Brown 5 BY 5 Menier Gallery London Melbourne Art Fair Representing Dominik Mersch Gallery National Photography Prize Finalist Exhibition Albury Regional Gallery New South Wales Psychometry Core Gallery London. Curated by Nick Kaplony White Hot Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne. Curated by Dianne Tanzer and Lisa Keen AGENDA 2010 Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photographic Award Finalist Exhibition Gold Coast City Art Gallery Queensland, Australia Slick Art Fair Paris. Representing Capital Culture London 2009  Hong Kong Art Fair Representing Dominik Mersch Gallery RBS Emerging Artist Award Finalist Exhibition RBS Building Sydney William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize Finalist Exhibition Monash Gallery of Art Melbourne Willoughby Sculpture Prize Finalist Exhibition The Incinerator Sydney Fraction CBA Studios London 2008 Tendances: Contemporary artists in review The Art Floor Geneva. Curated by Sascha Gianella The Vernacular Terrain Monash Faculty Gallery Monash University, Melbourne. Curated by Matthew Perkins Postgraduate Degree Exhibition Sydney College of the Arts Gallery Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photographic Award Finalist Exhibition Gold Coast City Art Gallery Queensland, Australia Bazaar ’08 Official Satellite Event, 2008 Biennale of Sydney Clare Hotel, Sydney. Curated by Terminus Projects
2007 Undercurrent MOP Projects Sydney. Curated by Noella Lopez Portes Ouvertes L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Paris ABN-AMRO Emerging Artist Award Finalist Exhibition ABN AMRO Building Sydney L’Art Emmêlé Hôtel de Crillon Paris. Curated by Erick Öge & Jérôme Le Berre 2006 Antipodes Point Éphémère Paris Post It Peloton Sydney ABN-AMRO Emerging Artist Award Finalist Exhibition ABN AMRO Building Sydney Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize Finalist Exhibition Woollahra Municipal Chambers Sydney 2005 Contemporary Collection Benefactors exhibition and auction Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Antipodes Sydney College of the Arts Gallery re/thinking Bus Melbourne. Curated by Tristian Koenig Luminous Two Helen Gory Galerie Melbourne Punch MOP Projects Sydney Luxe de Luxe avenue K Kuala Lumpur. Curated by Polyptyque, Paris Première Vue Passage de Retz Paris. Curated by Michel Nuridsany 2003 Portes Ouvertes L’Imprimerie Paris 1996 Enough Bankstown Square Sydney 1995 Sydney Alternative Art Australian High Commission Singapore Waste Not Waste EcoDesign Foundation Sydney. Travelling exhibition Seep Centennial Park Sydney. Artful Park outdoor sculpture symposium 1994 Artspace Open Artspace Sydney T.I.P. Bankstown Square Sydney. 1993 The Second Time I Lost My Leg, It Was Stolen Sydney College of the Arts Gallery Unresolved Airspace Sydney 1992 Brown Paper Show Allen Street Gallery Sydney Value Allen Street Gallery Sydney 1991 Natura Morta NCA Sydney 1990 Ask Iris Sydney College of the Arts Gallery
Awards 2012 Honorary Mention, Hybrid Art category Prix Ars Electronica Linz, Austria Finalist Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists Travel Scholarship Sydney College of the Arts 2011 Highly Commended, Traditional Techniques section Love Lace International Lace Award Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Judges special mention William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne Finalist Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia 2010 Finalist National Photography Prize Albury Regional Gallery, New South Wales, Australia Finalist Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia 2009 Winner RBS Emerging Artist Award RBS Building, Sydney Short-listed William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne Winner, People’s Choice Award, and Highly Commended Willoughby Sculpture Prize The Incinerator, Sydney 2008 Winner (joint) Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia 2007 Finalist ABN-AMRO Emerging Artist Award ABN-AMRO Building, Sydney 2006 Highly Commended Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize Woollahra, Sydney Finalist ABN-AMRO Emerging Artist Award ABN-AMRO Building, Sydney
Grants and Scholarships 2014 Creative Australia – New Art Grant – Emerging and Experimental Arts 2013 Australia Council for the Arts – Visual Arts - Skills & Arts Development Grant Australia Council for the Arts – Interarts Project Grant 2013 Arts NSW – New Projects Grant 2012 Synapse Art-Science Residency Grant, Australian Network for Art and Technology Australia Council for the Arts – Visual Arts New Work Grant – Mid-Career Artists Monash University, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Melbourne - Creative Work Grant 2011 Besen Family Foundation Grant, Australia Monash University, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Melbourne - Creative Work Grant NSW Artists’ Grant, National Association of the Visual Arts 2010 Australia Council for the Arts - Visual Arts New Work Grant – Established Artists Australia Council for the Arts - Interarts Project Grant Monash University, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Melbourne - Development and Engagement Grant Marketing Grant - National Association of the Visual Arts, Australia 2007 Marketing Grant - National Association of the Visual Arts, Australia 2006 Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists International Exchange Scholarship, Sydney College of the Arts 2005-2008 University Postgraduate Award, The University of Sydney 2007-2007 Postgraduate Research Support Scheme grant, The University of Sydney 2004 Marketing Grant - National Association of the Visual Arts, Australia 2002 Marketing Grant - National Association of the Visual Arts, Australia 1998 Australia Council for the Arts - Professional Development Grant Australia Council for the Arts - Community Cultural Development Grant 1996 Australia Council for the Arts - Community Cultural Development Grant 1995 Australia Council for the Arts - Community, Environment, Art & Design Grant Australia Council for the Arts - Community Cultural Development Grant 1994 Marketing Grant - National Association of the Visual Arts, Australia 1993 The University of Sydney- Cultural Grant The University of Sydney- Shirbin Bursary 1991 The University of Sydney – Sir Frank Packer Bursary
Publications 2014 2014 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011
Marius Kwint, Helen Pynor: Confounding Clear Separations Artlink vol 34, no. 3, p. 44-47 Arthur I. Miller, Colliding Worlds: How Cutting Edge Science is Redefining Contemporary Art Publ. W.W.Norton: London. In Press Dmitry Bulatov Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the Post-Biological Age. Part 2: Theory Publ. National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Baltic Branch, Kaliningrad, Russia, p. 470 Dmitry Bulatov, catalogue essay, Art and Science as the Conjectured Possible National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Baltic Branch, Kaliningrad, Russia Urszula Dawkins, The Science and Art of Tangible Things RealTime 11 June http://www.realtimearts.net/feature/ISEA2013/11169 Régine Debatty, Artists in Labs Resonance FM radio interview, London, 22 May Claire O’Connell, Exploring oscillation proves a moving experience New Scientist online 12 Feb http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2013/02/oscillation-dublin.html Dick Ahlstrom, Exhibition will explain oscillation in a heartbeat The Irish Times 8 Feb, p. 9 Dick Ahlstrom New Science Gallery exhibition opens The Irish Times 7 Feb http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2013/0207/breaking37.html Oscillator, catalogue, Science Gallery Dublin http://sciencegallery.com/oscillator/thebodyisabigplace Sarah Vandepeer, Profile: Helen Pynor Artist Profile Issue 22, p. 80-84 Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schöpf, Gerfried Stocker, CyberArts 2012 Prix Ars Electronica Linz, Austria, p. 140-141 Julian Beaumont, The Macquarie Group Collection: The Land and its Psyche Other contributing authors: Felicity Fenner & John Macdonald. University of New South Wales Press, p. 170-171 Carrie Miller, The Life Raft The Art Life 26 Oct http://theartlife.com.au/?p=7297 Vivien Gaston, Controversy: Touching a Nerve, catalogue essay, Controversy: The Power of Art Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Victoria, Australia Paul Bayley, Time and Vision, catalogue, Australia Council for the Arts - London Studio 20-Year Anniversary Bargehouse London Marius Kwint, Land, Water, Light, Plants and Animals Asian Art News May/June, p. 70-75 Marius Kwint, Exhibiting the Brain, catalogue, Brains: The Mind as Matter Wellcome Collection London Front page image, Alok Jha, Wellcome joins ‘academic spring’ to open up science The Guardian 10 Apr, p. 1 Andrew Stephens, Uneasy on the Eye The Age 16 June, p. 25 Ella Mudie, Art-Science: The Cerebral & The Sensory RealTime 107, Feb-Mar, p. 47 Claire Ramtuhul, More than just grey matter New Statesman 28 Mar http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2012/03/brain-matter-collection Ruth Garde, Polymath exhibition Urban Times 2 Mar http://www.theurbn.com/2012/03/polymath/ Bryan Appleyard, Soul Searching The Sunday Times 18 Mar http://www.bryanappleyard.com/soul-searching/ Nicola Anthony, Polymath Trebuchet 10 Mar, http://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/polymath/ Editorial, 2012 Synapse Art/Science Residencies Announced Artery 22 Mar http://artery.australiacouncil.gov.au/2012/03/2012-synapse-artscience-residencies-announced/ Love Lace International Lace Award, catalogue Powerhouse Museum Sydney Bec Dean, Endings and Beginnings, catalogue essay Performance Space Sydney Ashley Crawford, Silent Running Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture issue 18, p. 80-84 Doris McIlwain, Transplanting Life: The Distributed Media of Embodied Selves Artlink vol 31, no. 4, p. 54-57 Editorial, Picture of the Week British Medical Journal 22 Jan, vol 342, p. 173 Dr David Dexter, Brainstorm art exhibition demystified the brain – it is not ‘degrading’ Guardian online 14 Jan http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jan/14/brainstorm-exhibition-brain-gv-art Catherine de Lange, Breath, body parts and what lies beneath New Scientist online 6 May http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/05/artist-helen-pynor-explores-what-lies-beneath.html
2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2009 2009 2009 2009 2008 2008 2008 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 2006 2006 2006 2006 2005 2005 2005 2005 2005 2005 2004 2001 1997 1996 1996 1996 1994
Photo essay Black Warrior Review The University of Alabama, issue 38.1, p. 145-152 Arthur Miller and Robert Devcic, Art & Science, catalogue, GV Art London Tom Jeffreys, Helen Pynor – Breath at GV Art Spoonfed 9 May http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/tom-699/helen-pynor-breath-at-gv-art-5139/ Tara Mulholland, Studios to call their own International Herald Tribune, The New York Times 21 Jun, p. 13-14 Tom Jeffreys, Affordable, Secure, Permanent – Second Floor Studios Spoonfed 26 Apr http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/tom-699/affordable-secure-permanent-second-floor-studios-5100/ Jane O’Sullivan, What Now? Helen Pynor Australian Art Collector Oct/Nov/Dec, p. 116-117 Andrew Taylor, Body is Beautiful The Sun-Herald 31 Oct, p. 34 Anne Ferran, On Liquid Ground, catalogue essay Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Cash Brown, Hands On: Craft in Contemporary Art, catalogue Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Sydney Lynne Dwyer, Liquid Ground Sydney Morning Herald 13 Nov, p.12 Juliet Gauchat, Liquid Ground Das SuperPaper issue 16, p. 52-57 Lidija Liegis, Brainstorm: Investigating the brain through art & science Oasis Issue 15, p. 88 Ashleigh Wilson, Prize Won With Ancient Knowledge The Australian 21 Oct, p. 16 Esther Rose Berry, Aestheticising Transnationalised Hair: Envisaging Difference in the Sculptures of Helen Pynor Trunk Volume One: Hair eds Suzanne Boccalatte & Meredith Jones, p. 98-103 Ashley Crawford, Dianne Tanzer Gallery Art World issue 8, Apr/May, p. 168-169 Lenny Ann Low, Twisted Whiskers Sydney Morning Herald 16-17 May, p. 10 Ashley Crawford, Pynor’s Lore, catalogue essay Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney Nick Dent, Critics’ Choice Time Out Sydney 5-18 Nov, p. 51, 58 Ashley Crawford, Visceral Voyeur Photofile issue 83, pgs 44-47 Clara Iaccarino, Undercurrent Sydney Morning Herald 28-29 Jul, p.16 Jacqueline Millner, Undercurrent, catalogue essay, MOP Projects Sydney Jan Guy, Tides of Hair Lino issue 18, pgs. 80-85 Jan Guy, Never Ever Been a Blue Calm Sea: Notes on the works of Helen Pynor, catalogue essay, red sea blue water Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne Jan Guy, Helen Pynor red sea blue water Trouble May, p. 12-13 Antipodes, catalogue, Antipodes artists’ exchange project & exhibition Point Éphémère Paris Sundandah Creagh, Breathing Shadows Sydney Morning Herald 22-23 Apr, p.16 Jan Guy, Breathing in the Shadows of Aporia, catalogue essay, Breathing Shadows Harrison Galleries Sydney Esther Berry, From Temple to Transnational: The Politics of Hair and its Globalisation, unpublished thesis, Department of Gender Studies, The University of Sydney, pgs. 32-34, 38-39, 44, 47, 74, 78 Jan Guy, The Shadow of Breath, catalogue essay Linden-St Kilda Contemporary Arts Centre Melbourne Jan Guy, Arriving Here from No/where (Erewhon), conference paper The Art Association of Australia & New Zealand Anne Kay & Jane Polkingthorne The MCA Tapes, video interview, Situation Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney Contemporary Collection Benefactors, catalogue Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Antipodes, catalogue, Antipodes Artists’ Exchange Project & exhibition Sydney College of the Arts Gallery Generation K, catalogue, Luxe de Luxe avenue K Kuala Lumpur Michel Nuridsany, Helen Pynor, catalogue essay Passage de Retz Paris Ali Benton, Totally Mosaic SBS web magazine Julia Jones, Artful Protest: Review of the Tradition of Environmental Art in Australia RealTime Aug/Sept, p. 8 Chang Jing Er, Ecology, Design and Developing A New Thinking, review Sing Tao Hong Kong, 20 Mar, p. E6 Samantha Donnelly, Defences, catalogue essay Artspace Sydney Caroline Pidcock, Waste Not Waste Architecture Australia Sept/Oct, p. 38 Mark Jackson, The Space of the Fold, catalogue essay Selenium Sydney
Self-Authored Publications 2014 2013 2010 2006 2003 2001 2000
1996
On the emergent properties of death: When words fall apart. Book chapter in Art, Science and Cultural Understanding Editors Brett Wilson, Barbara Hawkins, Stuart Sim. (Common Ground: Champaign, Illinois, in press) Fluid Threats: Notes on the Work of John A Douglas, catalogue essay, Body Fluid II (redux) ISEA2013, Performance Space Sydney Transgressive Biology and Material Feminism: Bioconversations in Art, Evolution and Emergence, unpublished doctoral thesis, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney In Suspension, catalogue essay, Antipodes Point Éphémère Paris Art and the Language of Wellbeing in Adolescent Health Care Annals, Academy of Medicine Singapore vol 32 (1), pgs 71-77 (Co-authors: P. Thwaite, D. Bennett, H. Zigmond) Art and the Language of Wellbeing in Adolescent Health Care, invited paper International Congress on Adolescent Health Salvador, Brazil. Presented by D. Bennett (Co-authors: P. Thwaite, D. Bennett, H. Zigmond) Nurturing Creativity in Hospital: The Evolution of the Youth Arts Program, unpublished conference paper Pacific Rim Conference of The International Association for Adolescent Health Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand. Presented by H. Pynor, (Co-authors: P.Thwaite, A. Marshall, D. Bennett) Mapping : Motions. Book chapter in Waste Not Waste Eds. Tony Fry & Anne-Marie Willis. Publ. Envirobook: Sydney, pgs 46-61 (Co-author S. Donnelly)
Collections Wellcome Collection, London Royal Bank of Scotland Macquarie Bank Collection The University of Sydney Artbank (Australian Federal Government Contemporary Art Collecting Agency) Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia Private collections in France, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Australia
HELEN PYNOR WISHES TO THANK
Kerryn Parry, Mandi Griffith, Tim Pearson and the other bat specialists and carers who provided invaluable knowledge and access to bats, Sandy Ingleby and The Australian Musuem, Colin Lucas and Sun Studios, Danny Kildare, Peter Plozza, Annaliese Raftl, Michael Elkins, Ghosne Aoun, Terry Burrows, Richard Luxton, Warren Macris and Hi Res Digital Imaging, Tugi and Dianna Balog and Graphic Art Mount, Bec Dean, Stephanie Britton, Dominik Mersch, Pamela Lee, Elizabeth Pynor, Robin Auld and Noella Lopez. The Accidental Primate was supported by Sun Studios.
Helen Pynor is a Research Affiliate of Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney.