Helena Almeida and the expression of form: How one artist’s body of work redefines female creative agency

By Elisabeth Harris

Helena Almeida, a Portuguese painter and photographer who began her work in the 1970s, is celebrated for her ground-breaking exploration and transcendence of boundaries in art media. And even more tellingly, her art shares the transformation of the body as it intertwines with the simultaneous evolution of emotion and thought. Making no excuses for her existence as a woman, Almeida seems to react to certain preconceived expectations of feminine behaviour by asserting her expressions of form in a personal manner.

Her most recent exhibition, displayed at the Jeu de Paume in Paris under the fitting title Corpus, greets the visitor with the opening quote:

“my work is my body, and my body is my work”

This is the concept around which Almeida centres her experimental art; she proclaims from the very start that she is woven intrinsically into the framework of her photographs and designs- that there is no separation between her existence and the existence of the art. In short, she is giving the audience a glimpse into the unique independent agency of her work.

Walking through each instalment, I slowly began to get a sense of Almeida’s vision. Because this exhibition displayed her life’s work, each stage was different and incorporated diverse pieces; for example, her younger years show a rebellion against conventional mediums, using blank canvases and empty frames as finished displays.

Her later years were what truly interested me. She began capturing images of herself in poses that suggested a concentration of self-reflection. She stares directly into the camera, daring and confident, then suddenly moves into a series uncomfortable body contortions, awkward and unsure. In a few dozen frames, she succeeds in exhibiting an intimate and purposefully uncomfortable perspective of the female gaze.

As viewers, we find ourselves repeatedly challenged with the question of what it is that defines ourselves. Almeida uses her photography as a tool to express the essence of herself as it is conveyed by her body; in many ways, she is boldly celebrating the transformations we see depicted in each sequential work. These pictures are brutally honest: Almeida hides nothing, including her moments of fumbling awkwardness as well as confident poses overlaid with strong swipes of blue paint. It was this sense of unashamed self-reflection that struck me as an unquestionably empowering experience.

Although Helena Almeida never defined her works within the realm of a specifically “feminist” genre, the culmination of every piece creates a space that is undeniable to the power of raw emotion and honest viewership. It is rather as if the source of empowerment emanates implicitly from the pointedly meaningful gestures; she shares a joy in admitting her innate flaws and uncomfortable moments as products of the continual process of discovering her feminine identity.

Through this, I found that she teaches an important lesson:

control is not attained by creating a façade of perfection; rather, it’s gained by boldly breaking away from stereotypes that imprison us within their frames.

Almeida’s genius is how she creates a powerful unity between this idea of physical presence and movement of a restless soul through the utility of real materials in combination with her posed photographs. Like the blue-hued photo series, “Inhabited Painting” and the deconstructionism of those empty frames , the agency of self-expression is suggested through a transcendence beyond a single medium form: art is literally becoming reality.

Such a provocative appeal to her audience leaves us with a sense of purpose. Helena Almeida diverts her viewers’ perspective introspectively to consider how we ourselves interact and perceive our own realities of space and physical form. And so with a renewed sense of reflection on the importance my own identity , I walked away from that old building at the end of the Tuileries garden, inspired by the infinite possibilities that the power of photography offers every individual.

Elisabeth Harris is a 23-year-old American with a passion for travel and French culture, which is how she finds herself living in Paris while teaching and studying languages (and frequenting the local patisserie much too often!). She wishes to further her interests in refugee and minority policy studies in graduate school, and continue to work with Lensational as a research officer. She can be reached at elisabeth@lensational.org when she isn’t busy visiting photography exhibitions around the city of lights.