Ayala Tower One Fountain Area
For much of her artistic practice, Johanna Helmuth has depicted the tensions intrinsic to domesticity—from the solitude of an individual,
For much of her artistic practice, Johanna Helmuth has depicted the tensions intrinsic to domesticity—from the solitude of an individual, to the convoluted drama of family life, to the perversions of intimacy. Occasionally, the viewer feels like a voyeur trespassing into the scenes of her works, catching a glimpse of what should have been undisclosed. Their immediacy, tenderness, and privacy are all the more emphasized by the rough-hewn pictorial surface, achieved through the vigorous application of pigment using a palette knife. Recently, the artist has included free-standing sculptures, installations, and found objects in her oeuvre.
Nakasalalay sa Lakas ng Dasal features both paintings and sculptures, creating an environment that evokes the solace of personal worship as well as the healing tonic of nature. Still embodying Helmuth’s coruscating figuration, the works, this time, bring her characters out in the open to bask in the sun and breathe the richly oxygenated air. They provide a glimpse into our former lives as well as the promised future once the pandemic is over: to live unencumbered by masks, to lay a blanket on the grass for a picnic without fear of an infection.
Nature’s regenerating power is expressed particularly by “Back to Beginning,” whose emphasis on Edenic paradise recalls leisure, innocence, and freedom from responsibility and material want. Nature creeps into “Taking Over” as well, where the once human habitation teems with bristling flora. Potted plant attends to the woman whose hands are clasped in prayer in “Maybe You Can Hear Me,” beams of light illuminating her. Her invocation is carried through the space with the towering sculptures of candles cast in resin, inscribed with prayers petitioning for a stay against difficult times.
The centrality of female figures in Helmuth’s works expresses a deeply autobiographical strain, at the same time bringing into focus the inner lives of women, in moments and experiences when they are most themselves, without the intrusion of the male gaze. Her recent works choose to affirm the wild energies both in a woman’s body and in nature, held together in their potential and capacity to create, nourish, and perpetuate life.
Words by Carlomar Daoana
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