Helen Wells
Helen Wells is a multimedia artist and video poet. She took a First Class BA (Hons) with the Open University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Art Psychotherapy at the University of Hertfordshire, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Process Oriented Psychology between 2003 and 2008.
She studied film making at Cinema City and Norwich Arts Centre in 2007, directing at the London Film School summer school in 2015, and took a Directors Masterclass at Cinema City, Norwich, in 2019. She held a BLOC LAB residency at Lowestoft in 2019 and a Collusion residency with Norwich Theatre in 2024.
From 2015 to 2019 she worked with Creative Working Lives, making a project each year that gave voice to experiences of change in society. She went on to launch Before I Go Theatre Company, which makes new work on themes of environmental and social justice and celebrates an ageless theatre. She is a member of the Lonely Arts Club.
Artist Statement
I am a multimedia artist layering hand drawn animation, film, text, soundscape and performance to create work that has both personal significance and a connection to society and earth in which we live.
My work often starts with something that disturbs me: my ageing body, experiences of isolation, changing abilities, the earth and the environment.
I love to take that disturbance as a starting point and then read and research, follow what interests me, make drawings and animations, film and slowly let the piece of work emerge.
Sometimes words come and a performance develops.
Sometimes I work alone and sometimes have great pleasure in working in groups where new and unexpected things emerge and new skills are learnt. Working across generations explores rich diversity of experience and dialogue across communities.