Helen Gory’s art pivots upon its connections. Its power lies in its links. Her images seem to unspool and reveal an almost filmic flow of associations.

Golden Repair, the title of her solo exhibition at Chapman and Bailey refers to the Japanese procedure of Kintsugi – a process that brings together and reconnects fragments of that which was once whole; it is , in essence, an embrace of imperfection. For Gory, the procedure stands as an analogy of the honest acceptance of often overlooked and almost forgotten aspects of her inner self. It’s a type of re-stitching – an aesthetically realigned spill-out of the contents of a mental handbag.

“This body of work is autobiographical, and has taken me close to three years”, says Gory. “To celebrate that which is not perfect resonates deeply with me”.

The mixed-media works in Golden Repair speak of desire and displacement. Through her art Gory searches for patterns and meanings: her mind is seduced by connections and coincidences as it points toward a form of self-interrogation. Thoughts are prompted by fractured, fragmentary and juxtaposed images – an inventive vision of constructed parts rather than given wholes.

“These distortions and missing bits and pieces, floating in mid air, are expressions of seeing beauty in who we are, as we are,” explains Gory. “Finding the connections are our strengths.”

Please join us for the opening event on the afternoon of Saturday 18 March from 3pm, with a floor talk at 4.30pm from Ken Wach, Associate Professor and former Head of Creative School of Art at Melbourne University.