Artist Deep Dive: Seven key works in Helen Britton's The Story So Far

A deep drive into seven key works by Helen Britton, from her current exhibition The Story So Far. 

In this audio tour, Helen describes how she made each work, her techniques and materials, and the stories behind each piece.

The Story So Far is a major solo, touring exhibition that honors Helen Britton as the tenth artist in the series Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft.

Living Treasures recognises eminent Australian craftspeople, celebrating their mastery of skill, their achievements and the unique place they occupy in the national design culture. 

Featured works and excerpts

1. My Godmother's House

A set of 20 photographs taken in northeast New South Wales near Yamba on Yaegl Country.

 Over several years I took over 700 photographs. We've selected twenty for the exhibition. What was really fascinating for me were the collections within the house. Shell collections, stone collections, gathered objects and how they were arranged.

And then, of course, the path of time. So you'll often see the dust. I was very interested in photographing the the dust as a metaphor, the material reality of time passing.

2.  The Mysterious Path of Matter and Time

A small cabinet framed by branches.

 A work made out of my childhood detritus [using] a cabinet that I made about 30 years ago, and cement branches.  The cement branches does give it a ritualised, almost relique object-like atmosphere, which is what I was trying to achieve.

It's also in the true sense of the expression cemented into eternity.

Cement is a very interesting material because it is so stable and has such a long life. And it's an ancient material, which I think we also tend to forget.

3.  Junkyard Three

A monumental necklace made of many parts.

 I've created a piece using absolutely everything I could find leftover in my studio, and put it together. I've used the circle and bone catch for many years. For me, it is an interesting way to close a necklace, a circular necklace, with these two symbols.

And the rest of the pieces in Junkyard Three are often leftovers from my industrial series. Works preoccupied with the kind of environment that I grew up with in Newcastle in the 1970s and early eighties where BHP was kind of at its peak. For example, all of the barrels and rods that you would see lying around on the periphery of industrial areas.

4.  The Magic Cupboard

 When I was told I was to be the Living Treasure of Australian Craft, I decided to create a kind of 'cabinet of wonders' that included everything going back to my early childhood, the things that kind of triggered my imagination over all of those years. And include archival works.

On the bottom shelf, there is a porcelain plate painted by my godmother that she made that as a gift to me. She was very interested to make something not conventional, because she thought I'd appreciate that more. It's quite a dynamic drawing of geckos.

On the top shelf are a pile of airplanes made by my brother.

In the drawer, some of my dolls, put to rest.

5.  The Big and The Small Things

A large wall piece of paintings and jewelry depicting animals and bones.

 I guess the bones make this work much more sombre. They're often... what's left over. After we've eaten an animal or what's left over from us, they are what we find often on the ground or along the roadsides of Australian highways.

Whilst I don't want, I don't want to be specific about what to the bones mean, it does give this work a certain gravity.

6.  Wisdom's Despair and Wisdom's Blindness

One is a broach, one is a drawing. Both of owls.

 Wisdom's Despair is a large drawing. We have an owl sitting on a burnt branch, looking over either a desert or a sea. It's acrylic and ink on paper.

Wisdom's Blindness is an owl sitting on a branch with enormous, diamond eyes. The owl figure was based on a childhood trinket broach that came out of a chewing gum machine.

 I see this as one work. They're not two separate works. It is a kind of diptych. And thematically it is about reflections on environmental ruin.

7.  The Story So Far monograph

Presenting Helen's extraordinary, often colorful and playful works.

This is an artwork in its own right. It was created for this exhibition, and it includes a huge amount of detail about the works that you'll see in the exhibition. In addition to this, it covers my practice for the past 40 years.

About Helen Britton

Helen Britton is a multidisciplinary Australian artist based in Munich, Germany.

Her practice includes jewellery, sculpture, drawings, stencils and installations, and is informed by popular culture, threatened traditions, environmental destruction and human anxiety.

The Australian Design Centre honoured Helen as a Living Treasure in 2025.

About Living Treasures

Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft is an initiative of the Australian Design Centre. The series aims to celebrate the achievements of Australia’s most iconic crafts practitioners, through a touring exhibition and a major monograph publication.  

Read about Living Treasures on the Australian Design Centre website.

Credits

Object is hosted by Lisa Cahill, and produced by Jane Curtis.

Sound engineering is by John Jacobs.

Object is made on Gadigal Country.