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Catchment - Helen Earl + Belinda Piggott

Helen Earl and Belinda Piggott present Catchment. This exhibition explores the intricate tapestry of habitation and ecosystems, weaving narratives of interconnectedness, accumulation, and memory; traversing deep time to envision sustainable futures.

Earl and Piggot respond to Lake Macquarie precious ecosystems in an installation, drawn from their time spent next to the lake during a residency during 2024.

Artist Bios

Helen Earl

Helen Earl holds a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts and has been exhibiting since 2009. Her practice is collaborative and multi-disciplinary, working often with clay combined with found, existent objects. Her artworks have been described as having a quiet activism, as her work always seeks to remind the viewer of the symbiotic relationship between nature and culture, between our histories and our future.

Earl was the 2011 Artist in Residence at The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, 2013 recipient of a Bathurst Regional Art Gallery residency at Hill End. In 2022 she undertook a ceramics CRETA residency in Rome, Italy and one at Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany, WA. In 2019, Helen was commissioned by the Sisters of Mercy Brisbane to create Short Careful Steps, a site responsive installation of intricately detailed porcelain flowers at Adderton: House of Heart & Mercy in Brisbane.

She was a selected finalist in the 2021 Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize and received judges’ commendations in the 2022 KAAF Art Prize, the 2020 Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, the 2019 National Still Life Award and the 2019 Rookwood Sculpture Prize.

Belinda Piggott

Belinda Piggott is a multidisciplinary artist with a practice grounded in ceramics and research focusing on the Asia/Pacific region. Drawn to clay, as a material deeply connected to the earth, Piggott weaves narratives of origins, transformation, and community. Piggott has an extensive exhibition history in collaboration with groups such as Dirt Witches, Entangled and has collaborated with Helen Earl for a number of years.

Community has always played a pivotal role in Piggott's work. Seeking input from respected peers and inviting collaboration, she embraces diverse perspectives to enrich her practice. This collaborative spirit extends beyond the studio, as she believes in the power of collective action to address pressing global challenges, such as climate change. For her, true leadership lies in transcending ego and self-interest for the greater good—a philosophy that echoes through her work, where the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

Image: Catchment. Photo by Richard Trang.