Hellawell employs play as a process for creating his work. By taking objects and subverting their forms or placing them in an unexpected situation, he suggests alternative purposes and meanings. Some pieces are clever, like a sharp topical joke. Others are whimsical and eschew critical explanation. Text is a recurring feature; Hellawell enjoys both its malleability (its capacity for manipulation) and its directness. Words are used mischievously and unexpectedly; they throw the viewer off-kilter and catch us out, our sensibilities are teased and one leaves a work unsure of how one was ‘supposed’ to react. Employing uncomfortable subjects such as rape, paedophilia and capital punishment, Hellawell constructs an alternative morality that bewilders and challenges our understanding of terms such as ‘Beauty’ and ‘Horror’ – Rebecca Freeman
Education
2010 – 2011 : MA Fine Art: Contemporary Practice, University College Falmouth
2005 – 2008 : BA (Hons) Fine Art, Cumbria Institute of the Arts/University of Cumbria
Shows
2014
Wake Up Call – Redbrook, Unit 1F Redbrook Business Park, Barnsley (NYA)
2013
Present – West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield, West Yorkshire
Open Studios 2013 – Redbrook, Unit 1F Redbrook Business Park, Barnsley (NYA)
An Unofficial Alumni – Redbrook, Unit 1F Redbrook Business Park, Barnsley (NYA)
Barnsley Open Art Walk – Redbrook, Unit 1F Redbrook Business Park, Barnsley (NYA)
Postscript – Redbrook, Unit 1F Redbrook Business Park, Barnsley (NYA)
2012
BETA – Pop Up Shop Carlton Street, Castleford (NYA)
Awakening – Left Bank, Leeds (NYA)
Six by Four – Motorcade/Flashparade, Bristol
2011
This Will Make You Human – Woodlane Campus, Falmouth
Carry On Up The Passage – Tremough Campus, Falmouth
Tastes Like Arsenic – The Poly, Falmouth
Manifesto Vol:6 – (Artist Zine, Publication)
2008
Best of Ten (Performance) – Carlisle Arts Festival, Carlisle
On Wednesdays We Draw Monsters – Caldewgate Campus, Carlisle
NY 123 241 – NY 396 560 – The Bank Gallery, Carlisle
Loweswater Residency – Loweswater, Cumbria
2007
Loweswater Residency – Loweswater, Cumbria
2:43 Seconds Out – Caldewgate Campus, Carlisle
2005
End Show – Wheelwright Campus, Dewsbury