"Reimagining Ensō 円相 - the Zen circle" Fine Art Print

Helena Gaudekova is a Czech-born (b.1980) artist and curator; currently living in York. Helena studied Art and History of Art at the English College in Prague (1994-96), Christ's Hospital School, UK (1996), graduated from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic (BA Hons, 2011) and University of Central Lancashire, UK (MA with Distinction, 2014). As well as being a free-lance artist, curator and translator, Helena has also worked as a curator of Japanese and Korean Art and Crafts collection at the National Museum in Prague (2011-2014). She is now a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of York. Helena's work carries a touch of her long-standing interest in Japanese traditional arts and transcends these into a sensitive openness towards the subtle language of moods, colours and structures. She has been interested in Japanese as well as European philosophy and aesthetics and is intrigued by stimulating a dialogue between theoretical humanities (such as philosophy, psychology etc) and actual art. Therefore one of the projects of the artist is to participate at university conferences and workshops where she paints in situ finding a visual expression somehow parallel to what the speakers are presenting in their fields of study. Part of this desire to connect theory and practise is a series of Helena's works playing with the motive of text; her text-art works use text as a kind of an ornament. Here text loses its legibility, its intellectual stiffness and becomes a lively ornamental structure. Her latest painting project deals with the motive of “ensō” 円相 the symbolic Zen circle. In Zen, the circle symbolises the fragile balance between the mind and the body, a moment of enlightenment and the overall harmony of the Universe. The motif also refers to our perception of time; sometimes the circle is incomplete to suggest the process of development in time. Helena takes inspiration from this symbolism and created elaborate paintings featuring circles. She combines the traditional Japanese Zen symbol with a very Western style of abstract painting. The mingling of aesthetic traditions of Asia and the West is an important feature of Helena’s work. In this series Helena works mainly with acrylics and watercolours. Helena also works with the medium of photography capturing mainly deprived urban environments.