"What Happened to Helen?"

March 13, 2013

What Happened to Helen? - Helen Mirren Exhibition at The Focal Point Gallery, Southend Library

Oscar winner, sometime sporter of pink hair, and former Leigh resident, Dame Helen Mirren, is currently the subject of an exhibition, by artist Dawn Mellor, at the Focal Point Gallery, in Southend Library.

Mellor is fascinated by celebrity culture, from the delusional heights of overzealous fawning to the dark depths of embittered anti-celebrity blogging.

So the artist assumes the role of crazed fan to create jewel-coloured paintings depicting celebrities de-faced with marker pen and vile graffiti or in various stages of zombie-esque ruination.

What Happened to Helen? sees Dame Helen alternatively portrayed as master and servant inspired by Jean Genet’s The Maids – a play which sees two servants take turns to act out the imaginary murder of their absent mistress.

This device serves as a way of examining Mirren’s tendency to play on either her Russian heritage or working class roots to influence the media’s perception of her.

Of course in 2007 Our Helen was celebrated as a home-grown talent for her Oscar-winning ways; only to court local consternation a few years later when she announced she’d been raised in “the armpit of Britain” no less.

Oh, there’s nothing like a Dame, eh? Cue vitriolic outbursts from outraged locals, “Who does she think she is!?”

This is exactly the kind of public pantomime Mellor is intrigued by. And so, Dame Helen’s queens and servants flaunt popped eyeballs or are dowsed in brown liquid from a toilet brush.

We may well wonder “What happened to Helen?” But consider this project was made specifically with Southend in mind and it seems our musings should be aimed closer to home.

What Happened to Helen? is on at the Focal Point Gallery in Southend Library until 30^th March 2013

http://www.focalpoint.org.uk/exhibitions/current/

Ideas 13 Interview with Dawn Mellor

http://idea13.org/2013/02/d/#more-13634

Helen Mirren is currently playing the Queen in The Audience

http://www.theaudienceplay.com/home/

Review by Helen Davis

www.adventuressundressed.com