eDuard Helmbold (b. Johannesburg, South Africa)
My life and art practice centres around creating space for the complexities of our existence with the belief that beauty and balance can emerge from it. With a dedication to confronting complex histories, my art aims to foster empathy, dialogue, and understanding in cultural landscapes marked by trauma and struggle. Susan Best’s notion ‘Reparative Aesthetics,’ and Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s ideas around “Hospicing Modernity” create the theoretical underpinning of my practice.
Through sculpture, performance and installation I aim to create spaces that temper shame and encourage dialogue about our difficult histories. Materially my practice combines industrial materials such as copper, plastics, rubber, and motor oil with organic substances like cow manure, salt, water, and meat, resulting in works with an appealing yet abject aesthetic. This juxtaposition of materials results in compelling and evocative installations, embodying the duality of beauty and discomfort.
When not in the studio, I work as a Drug and Alcohol counsellor in Bunganditj / Mount Gambier, South Australia.