Helen Chadwick’s Of Mutability: Process and Postmodernism

This article discusses the making and historical research that underpins Helen Chadwick’s Of Mutability (1986), and considers how these ideas were re-presented as a postmodern installation. The work is complex and multilayered in its references, and was constructed from a range of mixed media that included photocopies, photo-booth portraits, computer-generated drawings, gold leaf and composting material. In preparation, Chadwick undertook enormous amounts of research, kept detailed notes and explored the possibilities of reproductive media. The article first discusses the installation as a whole, then considers her research into and incorporation of historical tropes, her experiments with the photocopier, and finally how these ideas came together as an open-ended, complex postmodern installation. Publisher Statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Visual Art Practice on 21st September 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14702029.2016.1206442