Helen

See this work at: SAVOY, Opening Event and Closing Event

Helen lives alone in a small cottage in Rathlee, Co. Sligo. She has lived there all of her life. The village of Rathlee is a loose scattering of houses on Ireland’s far west coast, abutting the rugged Atlantic Ocean. It is very isolated and even the nearest store is miles away. The uninhibited display of her colourful shoes and clothes which Helen leaves scattered around her cottage are simply a joy to behold, offering a stark contrast to the bleak surroundings. 

Every Sunday Helen walks on her own the 10 mile return trip to the Seafield Hotel. She leaves home at 6 p.m. and doesn’t return until 2 a.m., all for her two hours of country and western music. Her sheer tenacity and determination to undertake this journey through some of Europe’s worst wind and rain storms is something to behold, gaining her respect from all those around. As her 80 year old neighbour Martin John states, “Helen is a gas woman.” 

I first noticed Helen dancing during her weekly piligrimage to Seafield Hotel, one Sunday evening, three years ago. I was fascinated to see a woman in her 50’s, 5 feet tall, short hair, red shoes and white socks dancing alone, song after song. By chance I had a video camera and when I offered to film her she eagerly agreed. At that time I had been filming the stories of other local residents. From then on any time I turned up with my camera Helen was in heaven.   

The longer I watched, the more I was drawn into Helen’s story. Looking through the lens I could see the way Helen, in the moment of dance, was rising above the trivial materialistic pursuits of my contemporary world. There was no Celtic Tiger here. This was a ritual that she had honed over thirty years. Her red shoes carrying her forward, to the rhythm of some deeply seated primal urge. 

It’s quite incredible that someone who lives in such an isolated place can source a different outfit each week to perform this ritual. The clothes come from neighbours and charity shops some twenty miles away. It is this task that keeps her busy during the week as she walks to find and gather. These outfits, once worn, are then discarded to air on her fence and lawn.     

During my trip to New York I found a pair of red shoes lying on the pavement in Brooklyn. I picked them up. They were too small for me. I brought them back to Ireland anyway. To my surprise they fitted Helen. She wore them to dance. I later reclaimed them from her lawn and they now form a vestige of Helen’s ritual.  
 

Molly Mishkas 

2009

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Molly Mishkas 
 

Molly Mishkas uses life both as a medium and as a raw subject matter. Her work raises ethical issues – deep rooted perceptions of life and identity, the concept of self and the position of the human being juxtaposed against the prejudices of personal moral development.  

Sacrosanct lines are being crossed by science and business everyday in the incessant pursuit of globalisation. The loss of traditional culture, ‘branding’ of social dysfunction and the ‘chemical remedy’ of it, blurs the genetic spontaneity that enriches the fabric of our society. It is our responsibility to realise that, it is only through diversity, we as humanity, can progress towards a saner, and even more, colourful future. This sentiment can be crystallised by Carl Jung when he stated, “The main conflict lies in generally accepted notions of who is normal and who is not”.  

www.mollymishkas.com