Artists > 2010: Framing Identity > Helen Marten

Work

Helen Marten (working with Fran Edgerley) has constructed a new response to the Gardens. coveting keratin, a truncated cast of the fore-parts of a lion sits contemplating milk on white, an obtuse billboard in which a piece of aerojel hovers above an extended hand. The piece reflects on the British love-affair with the Lion as metaphor – its role as King of the Animals in the Elizabethan Chain of Being surely informs its use in the Egerton family’s insignia, which can be seen throughout the estate on everything from doorknobs to road markers. But a more contemporary treatment of branding is also visible in the work: the billboard, the purveyor of popular message, is the Lion’s interest. The sought after lifestyles pedaled in today’s cultural mix of galleries, brasseries and gift shops are alluded to in the Gardens, which themselves are branded by both the National Trust and Cheshire East Council. The work is situated within the context of Tatton’s Choragic Monument, itself a deliberate signifier of education and taste, having been erected by Wilbraham Egerton in 1820 as a lasting visible reminder of his Grand Tour. 

Biography

Helen Marten’s work moves between interests with a stuck-together-with-spit kind of aesthetic, and the seamless, slick and sleazy gloss of industrial manufacture. There is an interest in touch, process and pace; smooth surfaces alternate with ruinous arrangements, and architectural nods sit alongside trashiness, fragility, obsessiveness and a kind of graphic erotica. She received a Boise Scholarship in 2009 and her current work is focused around new exhibitions and the publication of a materials sourcebook. She has shown in exhibitions at Lisson Gallery and Modern Art Oxford and graduated from The Ruskin School of Fine Art in 2008.