Helen Chadwick was born in London in 1953. From a Fine Art Foundation course at Croydon College she moved to study at Brighton Polytechnic (1973–1976). 1976, she left for London to attend the Master’s course at Chelsea College of Art (1976–1977), before eventually taking on the role of professor at the prestigious schools of the English capital: Goldsmiths (1985–1990), Chelsea College of Arts (1985–1995), Central Saint Martins (1987–1995) and the Royal College of Art (1990–1994). It is no wonder that her influence was felt throughout the 1980s and 1990s, namely on the group that would become known as the Young British Artists. She was among the first wave of female artists nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize (1987). Keen to grant women more artistic and less stereotypical visibility, Chadwick strove to break down barriers – sometimes admittedly clumsily – and challenge the sociocultural status quo.
Throughout her education, Chadwick developed a unique style mixing soft materials, pigments, latex and performance, all with a strong focus on the body. Domestic Sanitation from 1976 serves as a controversial example. Although the work, which features female figures clad in latex performing domestic tasks, sought to distinguish nudity from nakedness and satirically underline gender roles, the performance was criticised by feminist figures for reinforcing the very stereotypes it denounced. From general external considerations on the body, Ego Geometria Sum (1983) or The Oval Court (1984–1986), Chadwick ventured inwards with works such as Viral Landscapes (1988–1989), Meat Abstracts (1989) or Meat Lamps (1989–1991), which use very organic, fleshy and cellular imagery. This more biological approach would continue throughout her career.
Informed by the likes of Julia Kristeva and Michel Foucault, Chadwick shifted her approach to body and gender as a subject. From representation, she began questioning their very definition. Piss Flower (1991–1992), a series of twelve sculptures based on urine trails in snow moulded in plaster, questions gender by reversing the expectations associated with it. Indeed, in her quest to dissect femininity and gender as a social construct centred on submissive desire, Chadwick instrumentalised opposition and antithesis as a means to explore, seeking truth in contradiction. She was particularly invested in associating the arousing body with the ‘abject’, hence her focus on taboo anatomical parts and her use of rotting materials, chiefly food.
This constant interrogation paved the way to numerous exhibitions. Her first solo show took place in 1986 in London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, where she presented early pieces, such as The Oval Court. Her show Effluvia (1994) meanwhile displayed the inward trajectory that Chadwick’s corpus had undergone in the 1990s.
Chadwick died of a cardiac event in 1996, aged 42. Almost 10 years after her death, a comprehensive retrospective took place in 2004–2005 at the Barbican Art Gallery (London) and toured through the Liljevalch Konsthall (Stockholm), the Kunstmuseet Trapholt (Kolding) and Manchester Art Gallery.