Helen Barff, Sticks 4 and Stones 4

Helen Barff works with found objects and materials such as felt, plaster, concrete, rubber or photographic surfaces, using processes such as wrapping, casting or other interventions in space and surface. She is interested in how materials are shaped by temporality, or how memory becomes embedded in matter. A sensitivity to touch is central to her practice.

Sticks and Stones are photograms of sticks and stones all collected by the artist’s children and referencing the saying traditionally told to children ‘sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you’. Barff is drawn to the infinite playful possibilities sticks and stones have for a child as well as the memories of place these collections contain.