Helen Frik: Difficult

Preview • Blaenwelediad: Thu 1 April • 6-8pm • Iau 1 Ebrill
Exhibition • Arddangosfa: Fri 2 April — Sun 9 May • Gwe 2 Ebrill — Sul 9 Mai

Now and then we all heave a sigh and wish that things weren’t quite so difficult. But what if all difficulties vanished? What if there were no complications, no struggle in order to get where you wanted to be? Life would probably not be worth living…??

‘Difficult’ is universal and productive. If there were no difficulty in passing electricity through a copper wire, there would be no heat or light; without death, life would be invalid. Traces of difficulty are to be found in all histories and, consequently, we all have personal experience of it.

This paradox of essential but undesirable difficulty lies at the heart of Helen Frik’s exhibition and forms the basis of three new, large-scale commissions to be premiered in Wales: a stream of noise that occasionally crystallises into music; the unveiling of vitreous antagonisers in gaudy uniform, and a sea of homemade toys, contributed by the general public, that inhabit the realm where the trickiness of craft and the simple pleasures of dumb anthropomorphism meet.

Helen Frik is a keen observer of folk and the complex universe of emotions that they traverse in everyday life. Her work is unequivocally singular and yet somehow it reflects back to us our own eccentric takes on recognisable scenarios. Frik is not ashamed of the so-called shortfalls of human nature, of difficult relationships, of our incapacity to communicate, of loss or of failure. Whether by way of a snapshot, a drawing on paper or an epic installation with its own world of internal logic, Frik ferments an essence of humanity from both its fruits and its compost.

‘Difficult’ is Frik’s first solo exhibition in a public gallery in the UK. The newly commissioned works will be shown alongside a number of drawings from the Frik Collection. In addition, Helen has produced a limited edition print for sale during the exhibition. The prints retail at £150.00 (unframed) and are available from The Shop. ?

Helen Frik was born in Worcester, UK and lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is represented by David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen, and Galerie Novelles Images, Den Haag. This exhibition has received generous support from Fonds BKVB, The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.

This exhibition is generously supported by Fonds BKVB.

Gallery open: Tue — Sat 10-8pm; Sun 2-8pm. Closed Mondays.