Visual Work
Trimester in Acquabox
Author:
Helena Eflerová
About Helena
Helena Eflerová is an artist, art facilitator and human prenatal factors researcher. She was born in Teplice, Czech Republic (1978). She currently lives and works in Winchester, United Kingdom. She has a Masters of Fine Art at the Winchester School of Art (2009), and PADI Open Water Diver (2001) and AIDA* Freediver (2009) qualifications to explore creative practices and recreational therapeutic diving together in a unique union. Her work has been presented at universities, galleries, art centres, festivals and public spaces in the UK and abroad. She is a member of the British Association of Art Therapists and London Art Health Forum, and is also a supporter of the Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health in the USA.
Abstract
Trimester in Acquabox (2010) is a live performance by Czech-British artist Helena Eflerová, which was originally exhibited at the Para Haus exhibition in São Paulo, Brazil. The audience is invited to view a narrative journey representing a metaphor of the foetus' development in the womb, and to share the experience with the performer, exploring an underwater weightless habitat. This collective experience of viewing such an intimate performance proposes questions around the personal experience of early childhood and motherhood. It questions the development of the foetus, its capacity of memory, its happy and traumatic experiences in the womb, and the after-effect on postnatal life.
http://podcast.ulcc.ac.uk/accounts/BirkbeckCollege/mamsie/trimester_in_acquabox.mov