The Queen of Lemons, 2018
HD video, 7'50''
Stranger on Display, 2019, GEM, The Hague, NL, installation view

The Queen of Lemons, 2018
HD video, 7'50''
Open Skies, 2019, WIELS, Brussels, BE, installation view

The Queen of Lemons, 2018
HD video, 7'50''
Open Skies, 2019, WIELS, Brussels, BE, installation view

I am not the sky, 2019 - video still
HD video
9'38''

I am not the sky, 2019 - video still
HD video
9'38''

I am not the sky, 2019 - video still
HD video
9'38''

Something for the Ivory, 2019 - video still
double channel HD video
14'44''

Something for the Ivory, 2019 - video still
double channel HD video
14'44''

The Queen of Lemons, 2018 - video still
HD video
7'50''

The Queen of Lemons, 2018 - video still
HD video
7'50''

The Queen of Lemons, 2018 - clip
HD video
7'50''

Holden, 2017 - video still
HD video
11'

Holden, 2017 - clip
HD video
11'

I love your language (...), 2016 - video still
HD video
7’13''

I love your language (...), 2016
HD video, 7'13''
LOOP Barcelona 2016, Barcelona, ES installation view

These are my friendly hands, 2013, HD video, 6' - left
The Burning Time Slideshow, 2015, HD video, 7'10'' - right
Close Up, 2016, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, NL, installation view

The Burning Time Slideshow, 2015
HD video, 7'
The Story of the Stone, 2015, A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam, NL, installation view

The Burning Time Slideshow, 2015 - clip
HD video
7'

These are my friendly hands, 2013 - video still
HD video
6'

These are my friendly hands, 2013 - video still
HD video
6'

You do Voodoo, 2011
HD video, 6'25"
RijksakademieOPEN 2011, Amsterdam, NL, installation view

You do Voodoo, 2011
HD video, 6'25"
RijksakademieOPEN 2011, Amsterdam, NL, installation view

Untitled John, 2010
double channel video, 4'38''
Flesh of the World, 2015, University of Toronto Art Center, Toronto, CA, installation view

Breaker, 2008
double channel video, 3'
Flesh of the World, 2015, University of Toronto Art Center, Toronto, CA, installation view

biography

British artist Helen Dowling creates video installations and sculptures in which she explores the language of editing, of emotion, mimesis, anthropomorphism and the empathic potential of the moving image. She uses a multitude of images that she has found, downloaded or filmed herself to create video works that have a hallucinatory effect, taking the viewer on a visual trip that presents them with an alienating view of existence. At the same time, the works reference philosophy and poetry – from poet Kate Tempest to feminist thinker Hélène Cixous – and universal themes like the landscape and humankind’s impact on nature. From celestial bodies to wandering humans, images appear in apparently random succession, forming stories with no linear plot. Dowling combines her own footage with existing material, including digitalized images from magazines and stock videos. In the editing process, she creates an interplay of colour, movement, rhythm and sound, as an associative visual narrative with several layers of meaning emerges. In Dowling’s universe, the boundary between real and artificial is blurred. Some elements are recognizable: a sarcophagus, a young woman, the interior of a coffeeshop. Without entirely abandoning figuration, Dowling approaches abstraction in an almost painterly fashion. With their penetrating soundscapes her works are an immersive experience.

Helen Dowling was born in 1982, in Windsor (GB). She lives and works in Delft (NL) and Brussels (BE). Dowling studied at Goldsmiths and Slade School of Fine Arts in London, after which she did residencies with Via Farini (IT), Fondazione Antonio Ratti (IT), and also the two-year residency program of the Rijksakademie van  Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (NL). Recent presentations with works of Helen Dowling include RITUAL, Galerie stadt Sindelfingen (2021/22, DE); Something for the Ivory, Villa delle Rose, Bologna (2021, IT); Open Skies, Wiels, Brussels (2019, BE); Stranger on display, GEM, The Hague (solo, 2019, NL); Dobra, Cinemateca do Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2018, BR); Whatever’s there, tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam (solo, 2017, NL); Cities at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (2017, UK); Physical Fiction at the Garage in Rotterdam (2016, NL); Che il vero possa confutare il falso at Palazzo Pubblico, Santa Maria della Scala, Accademia Fisiocritici, Siena (2016, IT); Dark Palms at Studio Amaro, Naples (2016, IT) and Close-Up – A new generation of film and video artists in the Netherlands, EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam, (2016, NL). Dowling’s work is part of private and public collections in the Netherlands and abroad.

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gallery exhibitions
February 6 - March 13, 2021
Duo
October 14 - November 11, 2017
Solo
June 3 - August 16, 2017
Group
October 9 - November 14, 2015
Group