SOLO EXHIBITIONS
'Under One Sky'
Town Hall Broadmeadows Gallery, Melbourne
6 Apr - 3rd June 2023
.Photo of Gallery by Ian Hill Photographer
This immersive, playful exhibition of paintings and textiles explores themes of death-rebirth and transformation. While working as a psychologist during the pandemic I created paintings that incorporate the colour of the sky, drawing on mythology that speaks to the vitality of the sky as a protective force. The overarching sky became a symbol that helped me feel connected to others while experiencing grief , stress and social isolation. It sparked my interest in how symbols can help us connect to the sacred or spiritual realms as comfort during a time of crisis.
Through Grief We Transform Installation. Photo by Ian Hill
The exhibition of 56 paintings and textiles explored the interaction between external change and our internal world. I shared three significant dreams which provided a window into how the Pandemic has led to my own inner growth. By sharing this intimate work I hoped to provide a space to grieve and reflect on how we have all transformed as a result of forces outside of our control. The show was curated by Carmen Reid and installed over three days by the Hume Arts and CultureTeam.
Photo of Feyza's introduction and acknowledgment of country by Jane Stewart, Founder of It's the Little Things Community
On Saturday 3rd June I held an Artist Talk, opened by Feyza Yazar, Hume Arts Activation Officer. It was a deeply moving and intimate event with insightful questions asked throughout.
“Thank you for your insightful artist talk today, it was a soft and reflective opportunity to look back at the past three years of our lives.”
“What an inspiring and deeply thought provoking afternoon. Thank you for sharing such intimate parts of your life."
.
'The Jefferson Grid'
Hume Global Learning Centre Gallery, Sunbury
19 Feb - 27 Mar 2020
Photo by Ian Hill Photography showing the five Quilts and the Airplane Chair Installation, Mar 2020
This exhibition was my fifth solo exhibition and the first in a public gallery. The 29 artworks were inspired by my encounter with the expansive quilt like landscape known as the Jefferson Grid when I looked out of an airplane window between Denver, Colorado and Shreveport, Louisiana in September 2018. This moment of profound inspiration led to an intense desire to capture this feeling and explore it's essence.
Photo by Ian Hill Photography showing the Squaring the Circle Embroidery Series, The Jefferson Grid Drawing Series and the Airport Chair Installation.
The exhibition included an opening event with speeches by Michael Breen of WaterLife Sunbury and Kelly Jones, Director of Carbon8 Not for Profit. A Make a Quilt Block Workshop was held on Saturday 29th Feb 2020 and participants are currently creating a quilt for the Hume Library, Sunbury. An Artist's Talk was held on Thursday 5th Mar 2020.
Catalogue designed by Lisa Chrisensen of Three Branches Design and funded by Hume City Council.
'Tassels and Fragments'
Falkner Gallery, Castlemaine
29 March – 19 May 2018
My art connects the past with the present using symbols that can lead to healing and growth. Using textiles as a metaphor for the human condition, in this show my Tassel drawings could represent our inherent need to be noticed. By comparison, maybe my Fragment drawings attempt to capture the more private, vulnerable parts of us that are hidden within.
'Mountain is Myself'
Gallerysmith Project Space, North Melbourne
11 – 20 May 2017
While undertaking intensive psychotherapy over a two and a half year period, artist, psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist Helen Fraser recorded the process in this series of repetitive line drawings. A fleeting yet profound moment in early 2015 connected her to the image of an internal mountainscape that stretched for eternity. It had a flat base and rolling, undulating peaks which continued as far as the eye could see. Was this her true self in the form of a mountain? What did it represent? This body of work aims to recreate that moment and provide a contemplative and meditative space to reflect on the relationship we all have with mountains within our internal and external worlds.
Why climb a mountain?
Look! A mountain there.
I don’t climb mountain.
Mountain climbs me.
Mountain is myself.
I climb on myself.
There is no mountain
nor myself.
Something
moves up and down
in the air.
By Nanoa Sakaki
'Mummy, I've Lost My Teddy'
Alternating Current Art Space, Windsor
28 April – 20 May 2017
Mummy, I’ve Lost my Teddy examines the role objects play to placate ‘during times of transition, uncertainty and change.’ Here, Helen Fraser draws upon the psychoanalytic theory of Donald Winnicott, who coined key concepts such as ‘transitional objects’ and ‘transitional experience.’ Exploring the relationship between childhood and adulthood, Fraser seeks to present an object’s ongoing function to comfort throughout our lives. Drawing upon her own attachment to a childhood Teddy, the artist reflects upon how ‘soft toys, security blankets and the like’ can serve as tools to help us cope with the complexities of adulthood.
'Mummy, I've Lost My Teddy', Alternating Current Art Space, 2017
'Mummy, I've Lost My Teddy', Alternating Current Art Space, 2017
'Mummy, I've Lost My Teddy', Alternating Current Art Space, 2017
'Mummy, I've Lost My Teddy', Alternating Current Art Space, 2017