Spanning five decades, Helen Fuller’s practice incorporates painting, sculpture, installation and, most recently, ceramics. Timed to coincide with the publication of a new monograph dedicated to the artist’s prolific, multifaceted practice, Shedding, currently on display at the Adelaide Central School of Art (ACSA), reflects the aesthetic of the artist’s studio environment.

Curated by Andrew Purvis, the exhibition features a selection of works from different stages of Fuller’s career and highlights the diversity of her practice. Purvis wanted the exhibition to convey the way Fuller lives with her artworks and surrounds herself with artefacts and objects.

“She continues to repurpose, rearrange and juxtapose things she has made over the years. In a way she lives with an archive on the shelves around her so I wanted to give a sense of that,” explains Purvis.

Shedding harks back to Fuller’s 1995 work BCF (her father’s initials), where she created an installation out of the contents of her father’s shed and filled the University of South Australia Art Museum, then located in Adelaide’s Underdale. In this instance, Purvis has gleaned the contents of Fuller’s studio and presented them in a way that tells a story of the artist’s practice.

Helen Fuller’s Shedding at Adelaide Central School of Art. Photo: Sam Roberts

The exhibition features works from 1986-2023 alongside artefacts and mementos from Fuller’s studio which are deeply rooted in family history. For example, there is a picture of her mother cleaning the silverware which is quite meaningful. Fuller had finished school a few months before and her mother is using her uniform as a rag to clean the silver. In the background is a shadowbox shelf her father made. There was very little art around her when she was growing up but there was a lot of craftsmanship, her dad was a Mister Fixit. This has influenced her practice and use of a wide variety of materials.

Fuller’s work celebrates the everyday through the use of found objects as well as patterns and repetitions. Some motifs and patterns keep occurring in her work, such as red and white checked gingham. Red and white were the only colours in her house growing up because they are the colours of the North Adelaide football club that her dad supported. The gingham pattern is also a symbol of domesticity as it has been widely used to make clothes, curtains and tablecloths.

Fuller is driven by a desire to make. In 2009, Fuller attended a local pottery class and since then has created hand-built forms and coil pots driven by intuition and materiality. It’s the immediacy of the medium that attracts her.

“I like making things,” states Fuller. “With clay the moment you start touching it, the hands start making something.”

Like Fuller’s studio, Purvis has transformed the gallery at ACSA into a space full of memories of the artist’s career and her family. By drawing connections between the artworks the audience gets a glimpse into the diversity of her practice and a sense of how she works.

Helen Fuller: Shedding is showing at the Adelaide Central School of Art until October 27, 2023.