ART AUCTION
Helena Frei
Title: Boots for Standing at the Crossroads
Materials: Mixed media on rubber boots
The boots grew out of Helena's experience of wetlands – both of lush and thriving marshlands and of places that development had reduced to a devastation of dead, grey tree stumps and rotting vegetation.
Helena's sadness that frogs and bees are disappearing was also an inspiration; with their death, they are warning humans that the planet has reached saturation point in its ability to absorb the byproducts of our industry.
We stand at a crossroads where our choices will make the difference between living in a world rich with life and hope and existing in the downward-spiralling universe of Blade Runner.
Helena Frei is an artist, writer and freelance curator with an eye for detail and a profound curiosity about the products of the human mind and hand. Though a lifelong city-dweller who has made her home in places as diverse as Prague, Zurich, Paris, London, Turin and Montreal, she was lucky enough to spend her childhood summers running wild in the country. Those summers in the Bohemian woodlands, the Laurentian lakes and on the west coast of the Bay of Fundy gave her an understanding of the interconnectedness of life and a great fondness for frogs. Currently settled in Toronto's Kensington Market, Helena enjoys watching the six or seven different kinds of bees and wasps that take turns grazing on the roses in her garden.
