Helen Cammock

Helen Cammock (/ˈkæmɒk/ KAM-ok;[1] born 1970) is a British artist. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Turner Prize[2] and was awarded the prize along with the other three nominees (Tai Shani, Oscar Murillo and Lawrence Abu Hamdan). For the first time ever, they asked the jury to award the prize to all four artists and their request was granted.[3] She works in a variety of media including moving image, photography, poetry, spoken word, song, printmaking and installation.

Helen Cammock
Born1970
England
NationalityBritish
EducationRoyal College of Arts (MA, 2011),
University of Brighton (BA Hons, 2008)
Known forFilm, Image, Photography, Writing, Poetry, Spoken Word, Song, Performance, Printmaking and Installation
AwardsMax Mara Art Prize for Women, 2018
Turner Prize, 2019

Life and work

Cammock was born in 1970 in Staffordshire, England.[4] She grew up in London and Somerset.[5] Her Jamaican father was a ceramicist and art teacher.[6][7] Cammock's film 'Character Building' deals with the acts of racism that she, her sister, and mother faced for being a mixed-race family.[6]

Cammock worked for 10 years as a social worker.[6] At the age of 35, Cammock began her studies in Photography at the Royal College of Arts, followed by study at the University of Brighton.[8][6]

Following the award of the Max Mara Art Prize in 2018, Cammock travelled across Italy to Florence, Rome, Palermo, Bologna, Venice and Reggio Emilia. She filmed a performance on Beatrice Cenci’s spinet in Bologna.[6] Her work, Che si può fare, was made during this time in Italy, which is an exploration into women's lament, an important theme in much of Cammock's work.[6][9][7]

"I am drawn to the poetry and music of lament; but also a personal, generational and historical lineage of sadness, longing and loss as a black woman. I know this lament does not belong only to my experience – it is something that is often ignored or undermined as part of world histories; and of course it is present most visibly in conflict, displacement and refugee stories."

— Helen Cammock, interview by Chris Fite-Wassilak in Frieze magazine, April 2018

Cammock's work often seeks to connect women's stories and voices across time, with common themes of oppression, feminist resistance, and solidarity, and exploring intersections of gender and race, the collective and the individual.[1][7][10][11][12]

Exhibitions

The exhibition consisted of video and installed billboards across the Wysing Arts Centre site, with dialogue and text including questions "Can you remember when you last did nothing? When you last did nothing, can you remember how it felt?".[4] Although made before the 2020 pandemic took hold, Erica Scourti noted in her review that "Cammock’s static camera, placed originally to linger on interior details of Wysing’s studio spaces, accommodation and grounds, all places of artistic activity now dormant, seems to anticipate our arrested motion".[4]

  • 2019 - Che si può fare, which premiered at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, in summer 2019 and was shown at the Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy in 2019-2020.

At the Whitechapel, "The main work is a three-channel film featuring interviews with activists, musicians, historians and artists from Cammock’s time in Italy."[13] The lives and work of women Baroque composers, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Lucrezia Vizzana are also explored.[14] A reviewer for the London Evening Standard noted that "its abiding message is of inspiring resistance to oppressive forces".[14]

The Long Note was nominated for the Turner Prize, and shown at Turner Contemporary in Margate, Kent, UK. The film and installation examines the civil rights movement in Derry, witih a particular focus on the role of women, and makes connections between Irish civil rights and Black civil rights.[15] In several sequences, Cammock combines found footage of Nina Simone with footage from the Troubles.[11]

Awards

See also

References
  1. "Interview with Max Mara Prize Winner Helen Cammock at Whitechapel Gallery". Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  2. Searle, Adrian (2019-05-01). "Turner prize 2019: thrilling shortlist offers sci-fi sculpture and gunshot sonics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-05-21.
  3. Holland, Oscar (2019-12-04). "Turner Prize won by all four nominees in appeal for 'solidarity'". CNN Style. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  4. Scourti, Erica (2020-05-14). "Why, They Call it Idlewild". MAP Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  5. Strunck, Clara (2019-06-19). "How artist Helen Cammock is finally coming into her own". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  6. Higgins, Charlotte (2019-06-18). "'I was terrible at drawing': Helen Cammock, the social worker who became a Turner prize nominee". the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  7. Fite-Wassilak, Chris. "A New Voice: Helen Cammock Wins the 2018 Max Mara Prize for Women | Frieze". Frieze. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  8. "Brighton graduate nominated for £40,000 Turner Prize", University of Brighton, 3 May 2019.
  9. Moioli, Chiara (2019-11-19). "Unfurl: Helen Cammock •". Mousse Magazine (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  10. Rea, Naomi (27 June 2019). "'All Art Is Political': Meet Artist Helen Cammock, Who Went From Social Worker to Turner Prize Nominee". artnet news.
  11. Tallentire, Anne (14 January 2019). "Helen Cammock's Fight for Women's Visibility | Frieze". Frieze. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  12. "Helen Cammock Wins Whitechapel's Max Mara Art Prize for Women". Artlyst. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  13. "Helen Cammock: Che si può fare review | Art in London". Time Out London. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  14. Luke, Ben (2019-06-26). "Helen Cammock review: Defiant past heroines brought vividly to life". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  15. "Work on Derry by artist Helen Cammock in running for Turner Prize". belfasttelegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  16. Islington, Cubitt Gallery Cubitt Gallery is part of an artist-led organisation based in; Bursary, London We promote innovative curatorial practice with an 18-month; Careers, Supporting Curators at the Beginning of Their (20 September 2017). "Helen Cammock: exhibition, interview and performance". Cubitt Artists.
  17. "Helen Cammock wins the Max Mara Art Prize for Women in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery". Whitechapel Gallery.
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