for my consolidated website go to:

http://lizhelmanworks.com/

Facing You Archive

Facing You, photography curatorial project in association with Fringe! - Gay Film Fest April 2012

Facing You brings together five London-based photographers, whose work explores the notion of queer alongside gender in terms of identity and lifestyle, whilst providing a study into the artist and the medium’s role in the representation of any subject’s personal identity. Rather than simply iterating the existence of the sitter or seeking approval from the viewer, these works actively explore the visual language of gender and sexuality and question the nature of its key signifiers and their origins. If gender categories are a construct, what is deemed to be masculine and feminine? Facing You feature’s work by Asa Johannesson, Alex Grace, Christa Holka, Ryan Riddington and Jacob Love. It is curated by Liz Helman and Gemma Rolls-Bentley and can be seen Long White Cloud, 151 Hackney Road, E2 8JL from 13-21 April, 2012. 

still from Inside Out. New work about gender, place and belonging

Where I Once Was..four short experimental films..http://lizhelman.blogspot.com

Roma London Curatorial Assignment with Different Culture Photos February 2010

I was invited to participate in Roma London after working with
Manuela Zanotti in a show that I initiated and curated in 2009 called RePlace for [noplaceprojects*], (an arts initiative that I front showing photography and moving image with an emphasis on place and people). I was attracted to this project, because the photographs would be the work of non-photographers, teenage Roma girls, and I was really excited to be working with pictures that were fresh and not the end-result of too much photo theory. I was also attracted to the humanitarian aspect of the Roma London venture.

The main challenge was to edit the participants’ pictures in with Manuela’s, presenting an intimate view of the girls’ lives and families. I was able to bring my photo editing skills to the collaboration, and realised that the best way to fuse all this material, was to select and present an overview of the images, creating a unified body of work. In the end, the work was narrowed down to about a hundred and twenty images, and was purposefully displayed in a way that would establish a dialogue not only between the pictures, but also with the viewer, who would be invited into the world of these young women. I am very pleased with the outcome of the exhibition, and I am hoping by showing Roma people in a positive light, that some negative myths might have been dispelled.

RePlace Archive 2