Helen sear - Brisées

Limited edition of 500 copies

1st edition published by Gost, 2012

220x160mm, 64 pages

Printed duotone Hardback – silkscreened and foil stamped cloth

Condition: New

Essays by Jonathan P. Watts Brisées (from the French for broken branches) is a new publication by renowned British artist Helen Sear published by GOST books to coincide with her exhibition Lure at the Oriel Davies Gallery 2 February – 17 April 2013. The monochrome, often pixelated images of woodlands in the book are sourced from the internet following a Google image search for the word ‘tree surgeon’. Each image features a placed orb which sometimes covers half of the picture surface. These perfect spheres or distended egg-shapes appear arbitrarily placed but are delicately balanced in stripped ‘tree crowns’ through careful and deliberate positioning by the artist. Many of the images show ropes and ladders trailing inside the orbs as clues to their origin and hinting at the obscured figure. The project began when Sear started to collect branches and twigs from Cuckoo Wood, close to her home in Wales. The title is a nod to the French Surrealist writer and ethnographer Michel Leiris’s 1966 work of the same name.

Helen Sear is a Welsh-based photographic artist known for being the first female Welsh artist to hold a solo exhibition at the 2015 Venice Biennale and for her exhibit at the 1991 British Council exhibition. An alumnus at University of Reading, she has received several awards for her work.