Helga Steppan

Helga Steppan works using photography in combination with installation, moving-image and elements of performance. Her work is conceptually driven; she sets up clearly defined parameters to work within and then attempts to fulfill the criteria she has imposed, documenting the process and results.

This way of working can be clearly seen in the series ‘See Through’ for which Steppan audited all of her belongings and divided them into a full spectrum of different colour groupings to photograph. The final images are visually seductive and ask the viewer to consider whether they can discover the artist’s persona reflected in the meticulously constructed installations of her material possessions.

‘Belongings Apart’ takes the process of documentation further by internalising it as its artistic principle. Steppan asked different people each to lend her one transparent object belonging to them. Next, she documented the physical spaces once occupied by these objects in the owners’ private interiors. In some of the images, the void left by the missing object is glaringly obvious, like the melancholic emptiness of a trinket box that might once have contained a piece of jewellery. At other times, the disappearance of the object seems to leave no significant mark on the interior.

Steppan also asked each person to compose a piece of text about the object they lent her and incorporated these personal accounts into the work having first suppressed the name of the object to which they relate. Finally she combined all of the individual transparent objects to produce a single sculptural installation. Displaced from their original environment, erased from the accounts describing their meaning and juxtaposed with other objects in a new context they become anonymous and subject to multiple different readings and interpretations.

‘Belongings Apart’ questions the extent to which an object or possession can ever represent its owner or hold particular meaning and invites the audience to discover its own associations in the work. The Transparency of the objects provides only a faint trace of the narratives that these objects used to be part of.

Steppan’s multi-pronged experiments in documenting demonstrate that the process of reconstruction highlights the powers of the apparently mundane objects to summon memories and evoke experiences.

Born in 1976 in Sweden, lives and works in the UK and Sweden.

Education
2002-2004: MA Communication Art & Design, Royal College of Art, London
1999-2002: BA Graphic Design, Kingston University, London
1997-1998: Kunsthøjskolen, Holbæk, Denmark

Solo Exhibitions
2008: ‘All My Things’, Vital Arts Gallery Space, The Royal London Hispital, London
2007: ‘Be long a part’, Man&Eve, London
2003: ‘Anna Otto Bob’ , Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London

Selected Group Exhibitions
2009: Group Exhibition of Gallery Artists, Man&Eve Gallery, London — IPG Terry O’Neill Award, Independent Photographers Gallery, Battle, UK
2008: ‘Message in a Bottle’, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, USA — IPG / Terry Neill Award Exhibition, Fulham Palace Gallery, London — ‘Art in the Carpark’, Liverpool Biennial — ‘Consume Peckham’, I Love Peckham Festival
2007: ‘Flash Forward’, Kathleen Cullen Fine Art, New York, USA — ‘Flash Forward’, Contemporary Lennox, Toronto, Canada — ‘Aqua Wynwood Art Fair’, Miami, USA — ‘Year_07 Art Projects’, London
2006: ‘Me, Myself and I’, Passagen Linköpings Konsthall, Linköping, Sweden — ‘Plug’, White Space, County Hall Gallery, London — ‘Wish List’, M+R Gallery, London — ‘Remaking’, Glasburen, Stockholm, Sweden — ‘Domesticity’, Art Works Gallery, Enefco House, Poole
2005: ‘Kagami II’, Contemporary Art Club, Paris, France — ‘Showroom: ArtPlatform’, Natalia Goldin Gallery, Stockolm, Sweden — ‘On The Road: United Net-Works, Artistic Strategies’, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2004: ‘Beautifully Functional’, Mayfair Air Gallery, London — ‘Unlock Your Imagination’, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
2001: ‘The Museum of… River Thames’, The Museum of…, London

Prizes/Awards
2009: Norsk-Svenska Stiftelsen Stipendium, Scholarship, Stockholm, Sweden.
2008: Konstnärsnämndens Arbetsstipendium, Artist-working Grant, Stockholm, Sweden
— IPG / Terry O’Neill Award 08, Shortlisted, London, UK — Magenta Foundation, Flash Forward – Emerging Photographers, Canada
2007: Magenta Foundation, Flash Forward – Emerging Photographers, Winner, Canada
1998: Marta, Wivi & Åke Liljesons Stiftelse, Sweden

Residencies
2009: Kunstnerhuset Lofoten, Svolvaer, Norway
2008: ‘Nkd – Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale’, Dale, Norway

Publications and Reviews
2009: HotShoe International, Contemporary Photography, Dec/Jan 2009, Issue #157
2008: Aluma, ‘See Through – All my things’, Malmo, Sweden — Planning Journal, Art in the Car Park, London, UK, 17 October, Issue 1791 — Artartart, The Global Art Market, Review: Consume Peckham Arts Festival, Oct, Issue 3 — Alaska, Elsa & Ingeborg, Ingeborg & Elsa by Helga Steppan, London, UK, July — Aluma, See Through – All my things by Helga Steppan, Malmö, Sweden, April —The Stranger, Hold Still, Seattle, USA, 19/02/08 — ArtScene, In the International Land of Contemporary Art…, Los Angeles, USA, January
2007: Qvest Magazine, Feature: ‘Die Ordnung Der Dinge’, Berlin, Germany — Grafik, Class of 2007 – ‘Be Long A Part’ by Helga Steppan, London — Creative Review, Pick of the Month, London — News in Pictures, Design Week, London
2006: Radio Territories, To see with each other’s ears, Photograph Errant
Östgöta Correspondenten, Review: Egocentrism som imponerar, Linköping, Sweden — NY Arts Magazine, What is After After Modern? New York, USA — Östgöta Correspondenten, Porträtt på åtta sätt, Linköping, Sweden — M / The New York Art World, Review: Diva, New York, USA
2005: AC Institute, AC: Hospitality Suite, Review: Diva, Paris, France — Svenska Dagbladet, Konstnären blir konsult, Stockholm, Sweden

Catalogues and Monographs
2008: Independent Photographers / Terry O’Neill Award, London, UK — Flash Forward – Emerging Photographer, Book, Magenta Publishing, Toronto, Canada
2007: ‘Belongings Apart’, Book, Man&Eve Gallery, London — Flash Forward – Emerging Photographer, Magenta Publishing, Toronto, Canada — The Cardinal Collection, Collection Catalogue, Experian, London
2006: ‘Me, Myself and I’, Book, ArtPlatform, Sweden — ‘Diva’, Digital & Video Artfair Exhibition Catalogue, New York, USA
2005: ‘Diva’, Digital & Video Artfair Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, France
2004: ‘Going Straight’, Exhibition Catalogue, Unlock Your Imagination, London
2003: ‘25hrs International Video Art Show’, Exhibition Catalogue, Barcelona, Spain
2002: ‘Pick Up’, Exhibition Catalogue, OutPut, London, UK

Artist comissions
2005: Rememorize, ArtPlatform, John Mattson Fastighets Ab, Stockholm, Sweden