Dr Helena Walsh

Biography

About:

Helena Walsh is an Irish live artist, activist and academic. She has been based in London since 2003.

Within her live art practice, Helena works with time, liveness and the materiality of the body; both within constructed installation environments and site-specific spaces. Drawing on her lived and embodied experience through her work Helena seeks to positively violate the systems, borders and rules that construct gender. Her practice explores the relations between gender, national identity and cultural histories. From her diasporic vantage point as an Irish woman living in Britain, Helena has examined histories of colonialism and migration in relation to issues of gender and labour, alongside the radical activism of Irish feminist diaspora. Helena has performed widely in galleries, museums, theatres and non-traditional art spaces, including public sites.

Helena is a founder member of the direct-action feminist performance group Speaking of IMELDA (Ireland Making England the Legal Destination for Abortion). Since its formation in December 2013, this intergenerational collective has undertaken a number of public interventions, which challenged the severe restrictions on access to abortion in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Between 2013 and the successful referendum to repeal the 8th amendment in the Republic of Ireland on 25th May 2018 that enabled the government to legislate access to abortion, Helena Walsh played a key role in sustaining the collective collaborations of Speaking of IMELDA, contributing to the development of the group’s public performances, publications and media campaigns.


Research Interests:

Helena 's research interests include live art and performance art practices, alongside the use of such to explore gender and cultural histories. Her work also considers the intersection of feminist performance and activism. Her pedagogic interests include the development of practice as research methodologies and experimental approaches. Helena regularly presents and writes on feminist performance practice. She has published in collections focussed on live art and also the performing arts in an Irish context, including peer reviewed journals such as Scene: Special Issue on Performance and Ireland (2020), Études Irlandaises: Special Issue Irish self-portraits the artist in curved mirrors (2018) and Contemporary Theatre Review: Special Issue on the Northern Irish Peace Process (2013) and Contemporary Theatre Review: Special Issue on Live Art in the UK (2012). Her chapter ‘Developing Dialogues: Live art and Femininity in Post-Conflict Ireland’ is featured in Performance Art in Ireland: A History (2015), the first book devoted to performance art in the north and south of Ireland. Her writing is also featured in collections focussed on reproductive rights campaigns on the island of Ireland, including Feminist Review: Special Issue on Abortion in Ireland (2020) and Decriminalising Abortion in Northern Ireland, a two-volume collection (2022).

For a list of Helena's academic publications please see:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7695-5183

For details of Helena's exhibitions and performances, alongside reviews of her work please see:
http://helenawalsh.com/