Helen O’Connor 2025 Longlist

Artist Bio

I am a Yukon visual artist based out of Whitehorse, Yukon for over thirty years. I make paper by hand from local plant fibre in combination with other media to create artist books, sculpture, assemblage and installation. My works are influenced by the plants, animals and unique atmosphere of the north.

Originally from Ontario, I studied visual art at the University of Western, where I was first introduced to hand papermaking, the Ontario College of Art and most recently, the University of Victoria. Working with the little-known art medium of handmade paper has led me around the world exploring residencies and exhibition opportunities in Asia, Europe, North and South America as well as Australia. While based in the Yukon I seek out collaborative projects with dancers, musicians, filmmakers and other visual artists working in an array of media and traditional crafts.

Artist Statement

My approach to art making is personal and intuitive based on knowledge gained through physical engagement with plants as material to interpret place. I am driven by curiosity and exploration of my environment. When I gather plants in place for papermaking, I begin a layered relationship through process and research as inquiry for art making. Plants are my inspiration. Even as a child I spent much of my time outdoors creating small environments with bits of bark, leaves and pinecones. It amazes me how similar my present studio practice is to these first assemblages in nature! The woods are a place of calming and inspiration to me full of sounds, smells and sensations of weather that add content to my final works.

The smells of the environment I work in to gather plants are strong triggers of memory and emotion that inspire ideas. I interpret my connection to place through paper art in an attempt to know myself and create identity. Identity signifies my personal cultural role as artist, mother, daughter, partner, Canadian, settler, Irish or other. Physical immersion with my materials gives me insight, authentic knowledge and knowing that adds direction, depth and meaning to my works. Driven by artistic process I explore questions that become answers in the form of paper works of art. They are physical forms answering the questions: Who am I and where do I belong? What is my connection to this place? What will I create and why?

The process of papermaking involves gathering plants, cooking and beating, by hand or with a Hollander beater, to a create a pulp for paper. It is this process that is at the core of my practice and acts as idea generator stimulating concepts that become conscious and embedded in the work. Throughout the papermaking process, as I move from stage to stage, I unpack meaning leading me to consider a myriad of concepts such as materiality, environmental stewardship, cultural myth, metaphor, lineage of plant, my own cultural lineage, as well as political implications of colonialism and aspects of performance. The concepts become interwoven and embedded in the works, sometimes becoming evident only after completion. Threshold moments of comprehension reveal themselves during process. Significance and insight are gained as works fall in place as connecting bodies.