Helen Barff -Tights I

Tights I reveals Barff’s interest in the autobiographical memories contained in belongings, particularly clothing. Clothes define or disrupt physical edges; they help define identity and continuity of self. Memories of absent clothing can take us back to a remembered place or person. A sensitivity to touch is central to her  practice. The print is made using direct contact with the clothing, reinforcing a visceral experience of touch and resulting in a mundanely familiar yet strangely anthropomorphic form.

Helen Barff is a sculptor whose practice has its foundation in drawing. She works with found objects and materials such as felt, plaster, concrete, rubber or photographic surfaces, using processes including wrapping, casting or other interventions in space and surface. The physical nature of making prints from objects is an extension of her sculptural process. She has created an eccentric menagerie of works that take on a presence of animal, human, or something in-between.

Barff graduated from Goldsmiths College in Fine Art and Art History in 1999 and a Drawing MA at Camberwell College in 2004. Solo exhibitions include ‘I Wrap My Fear Around Me Like a Blanket’, Close Ltd, Taunton (2023); ‘Many and many a day like this’, The Stone Space, London (2021); and ‘Memory of Clothes’, Worthing Museum (2019). Other exhibitions include: ‘All the Names’, Scrap Metal, Toronto; The Jerwood Drawing Prize; ‘Matter and Memory’, Alison Jacques Gallery; and ‘Open Cube’ at White Cube. Her work is held in various collections in the UK, Canada, Mexico and the USA.

THIS PRINT IS PART OF THE FOLIO 25 SET

Folio 25 comprises sixteen fine art prints by sixteen

UK–based artists. Eight sheets are in portrait format,

38 x 28 cm (15” x 11”) and eight sheets are in

landscape format, 28 x 38 cm (11” x 15”).

There are multiple sizes of graphic blocks

and plates, and a selection of different papers, with six

images printed to the edge of the sheet.

Each print has a limited edition of twenty. Ten of each

edition form part of complete folio sets (all sixteen

prints) and ten are available as individual prints. 10%

of each edition is marked AP, one of each edition is

marked HC and another PP

LINK TO FOLIO 25 SET

https://rableygallery.com/shop/artists/folio-25-set/